Solve this alphametic, where each of the capital letters denotes a different base ten digit from 0 to 9. None of the numbers can contain any leading zero.
INVENTORY = (RYE)3
Well, this is fairly easy to do with a calculator, or even by hand
cubing e and looking at the last digit yields y
e y
--- ----
0 0
1 1
2 8
3 7
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 3
8 2
9 9
Since they must be different, there are only 4 possibilities for ye. Cube them and the last two digits are ry
ye ry
-- --
82 68
73 17
37 53
28 52
so rye must be one of 4 values. Cube the 4 possibilities.
rye inventory?
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682 317214568
173 5177717
537 154854153
528 147197952
Only 682 works