Too Late, 2020 puzzle..

[Bill Duncan]

I'm surprised that nobody here mentioned this... Anyway, all the best for 2020!

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019...in-numbers

BTW, I'm looking at the answer to:

3.1) Fill in the blanks in the following ‘countdown’ equation so it makes arithmetical sense:

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 = 2020

[Bill Duncan]

... Might make a good discussion about how some of the answers were arrived at and, whether we could program the algorithms to execute on our machines...

Cheers!

[Albert Chan]

(01-01-2020 01:00 AM)Bill Duncan Wrote:  3.1) Fill in the blanks in the following ‘countdown’ equation so it makes arithmetical sense:

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 = 2020

(10 + 9) * 8 * (7 + 6) + 5 * (4 + 3 + 2) - 1 = 2020

[Bill Duncan]

(01-01-2020 03:09 PM)Albert Chan Wrote:  

(01-01-2020 01:00 AM)Bill Duncan Wrote:  3.1) Fill in the blanks in the following ‘countdown’ equation so it makes arithmetical sense:

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 = 2020

(10 + 9) * 8 * (7 + 6) + 5 * (4 + 3 + 2) - 1 = 2020

Yes, of course. The solution was already on that page. There might be an interesting discussion (I think) about how to arrive at answers like these and whether the algorithms might be doable on our machines.

I haven't figured it out, but it looks like a pretty large number of combinations to just use brute force..