At the store, there is a rule for determining the price of fruit. An apple costs 50¢, a pear costs 40¢, and an orange costs 60¢. It seems like the rule is 10¢ per letter, but a lemon does not cost 50¢. How much does a lemon cost?

As ADY points out, since there are so many variables if we assign each letter a price, there are many possible numbering schemes that could work.

Here's a nice simple one:
A=1, B=2, C=3 D=4 etc

APPLE = 1+16+16+12+5 = 50
PEAR = 16+5+1+18 = 40
ORANGE = 15+18+1+14+7+5 = 60
and so
LEMON = 15+5+13+15+14 = 59 cents

The three fruits given each are a nice coincidence because they average 10 cents per letter.
Two follow ups:  What other fruits (if any) average 10 cents per letter?  What's the cheapest fruit?

Posted by Jer on 2012-06-05 13:14:29