An arithmetic sequence is a sequence in which each term after the first is obtained by adding a constant to the previous term. For example, and are arithmetic sequences. In the grid shown, the numbers in each row must form an arithmetic sequence and the numbers in each column must form an arithmetic sequence.
The value of is
, 2013
Pick one
Solution
The sum of the units column is . Since is a single digit, and ends in a 7, then the only possibility is . This gives: [[IMAGE0]] Then , and thus 2 is carried to the tens column. The sum of the tens column becomes or . Since ends in a 9 (since ), then ends in . Since is a single digit, there are two possibilities for such that ends in 0. These are and . If , then the sum of the tens column is 9 with no carry to the hundreds column. In this case, the sum of the hundreds column is or 13 (since ); the units digit of this sum does not match the 9 in the total. Thus, we conclude that cannot equal 0 and thus must equal 5. Verifying that , we check the sum of the tens column again. Since , then 1 is carried to the hundreds column. The sum of the hundreds column is , as required. Thus, and the completed addition is shown below.
