Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.1 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:

In the base 10 arithmetic problem HMMT+GUTS=ROUNDH M M T + G U T S = R O U N D, each distinct letter represents a different digit, and leading zeroes are not allowed. What is the maximum possible value of ROUNDR O U N D?

Solution

Solution:

Clearly R=1R = 1, and from the hundreds column, M=0M = 0 or 99. Since H+G=9+OH + G = 9 + O or 10+O10 + O, it is easy to see that OO can be at most 77, in which case HH and GG must be 88 and 99, so M=0M = 0. But because of the tens column, we must have S+T10S + T \geq 10, and in fact since DD cannot be 00 or 11, S+T12S + T \geq 12, which is impossible given the remaining choices. Therefore, OO is at most 66.

Suppose O=6O = 6 and M=9M = 9. Then we must have HH and GG be 77 and 88. With the remaining digits 0,2,3,40, 2, 3, 4, and 55, we must have in the ones column that TT and SS are 22 and 33, which leaves no possibility for NN. If instead M=0M = 0, then HH and GG are 77 and 99. Since again S+T12S + T \geq 12 and N=T+1N = T + 1, the only possibility is S=8S = 8, T=4T = 4, and N=5N = 5, giving ROUND=16352=7004+9348=9004+7348R O U N D = 16352 = 7004 + 9348 = 9004 + 7348.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.