ABCDC - BEAAC = BADAD

Date: 03/25/2002 at 20:09:00
From: Arthur
Subject: Wierd math problem

ABCDC - BEAAC = BADAD 

If D=0 the point of this problem is to find out what all the letters 
stand for knowing that d is equal to zero and the problem has to equal 
BADAD.

Thanks,
Arthur R.

Date: 03/26/2002 at 08:21:02
From: Doctor Ian
Subject: Re: Wierd math problem

Hi Arthur,

Here is the original problem:

    ABCDC
  - BEAAC
  -------
    BADAD
 
We're told that D is zero - although that's not much of a hint. (Do 
you see why it can't really be anything else?)  So we can substitute
that:

    ABC0C
  - BEAAC
  -------
    BA0A0
 
If we assume that each letter has to stand for a different digit, then 
we can look at the tens place, 

    ABC0C
  - BEAAC
  -------
    BA0A0
       ^
       |

and see that we're going to have to carry a 1 from the hundreds place, 
which means that 10-A = A.  The only digit that works for is 5, so we
can substitute that:

  5BC0C
- BE55C
-------
  B5050

Since we'd have to borrow from C, C must be 1 greater than 5, which means 
it's 6.  So we can substitute that:

  5B606
- BE556
-------
  B5050

These steps illustrate the kind of thinking you have to do to solve this
kind of problem.  

Can you take it from here?

- Doctor Ian, The Math Forum
  http://mathforum.org/dr.math/