Puzzle 585
Can you find a five-digit number that …
… if you place a 9 at the beginning is four times larger than if you place a 9 at the end instead?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
Adding 900,000 to the numbner is the same as placing a 9 at the beginning.
Answer
23,076.
Reasoning
Placing the 9 at the beginning is equivalent to adding 900,000 (for example, 12,345 + 900,000 becomes 912,345).
Placing the 9 at the end is equivalent to multiplying by 10 and adding 9 (for example, 12,345 x 10 + 9 becomes 123,459).
Let's call the unknown number k, and we know that one of these numbers is 4 times the other, so:
k + 900,000 = 4 x (10k + 9)
k + 900,000 = 40k + 36
900,000 − 36 = 40k − k
899,964 = 39k
899,964 ÷ 39 = k
Therefore, k = 23,076.
Double-Checking
9 23,076 = 4 x 230,769 .
Puzzle 588
A woman had three old coins: a silver dollar, a quarter, and a dime. Each coin was a little battered and had a piece missing. She found that exactly the same fraction had broken away from each coin.
What fraction of each was missing if the value of the remaining bits of coins was now exactly one dollar in total?
For this puzzle it can be assumed that 1 /2 a coin is worth 1 /2 of its value.
Based on a puzzle by Henry Ernest Dudeney.
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Hint
A dollar is 100 cents, a quarter is 25 cents and a dime is 10 cents.
Answer
7 /27 of each coin was missing.
Reasoning
The original value of the three coins was 100 + 25 + 10 = 135 cents, and the new value was 100 cents.
Therefore, 35 /135 = 7 /27 of the original value has been removed.
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