Problem:
In the base 10 arithmetic problem , each distinct letter represents a different digit, and leading zeroes are not allowed. What is the maximum possible value of ?
Problem:
In the base 10 arithmetic problem , each distinct letter represents a different digit, and leading zeroes are not allowed. What is the maximum possible value of ?
Solution:
Clearly , and from the hundreds column, or . Since or , it is easy to see that can be at most , in which case and must be and , so . But because of the tens column, we must have , and in fact since cannot be or , , which is impossible given the remaining choices. Therefore, is at most .
Suppose and . Then we must have and be and . With the remaining digits , and , we must have in the ones column that and are and , which leaves no possibility for . If instead , then and are and . Since again and , the only possibility is , , and , giving .