These are the initials decimals of pi and e:

Decimals of pi: 1415926535897932384626433832795...
Decimals of e : 7182818284590452353602874713526...

Without rearranging the order of the digits, add any quantity of parentheses and arithmetic signs +, -, *, / (with same manner in both line) so that to make correct arithmetic expressions equally to 2003, using the least possible number of symbols. You have to use the digits starting from the left one, and the same numbers of digits in each case.

Example for number 11, using the first 5 digits:

- (1 * 4) + 1 + 5 + 9 = 11
- (7 * 1) + 8 + 2 + 8 = 11

These two expression contains 12 symbols (5 digits, 2 parentheses and 5 arithmetic signs).

...just kidding. it was quite hard. good challenge though!

1 * (41 * 5 – 9 + 26) + 5 * 358 - 9 = 2003

7 * (18  * 2 - 8 + 18) + 2 * 845 - 9 = 2003

do you know if there's a solution that uses less than 21 symbols?

BTW, thanks for the hint. without it, it was way too hard.

Edited on October 14, 2005, 10:14 am

Posted by brad on 2005-10-14 10:10:45