"It's unbelievable!" exclaimed Jerry facing his three friends Adam, Dan and Betty.
"I've asked you to tell me independently each a 4-digit number and after a while, I'm happy to announce that if any of you will divide their number by mine you will end up with the same remainder! "
Now that you know it I'm sure that you will be able jointly to figure the value of my number...- of course it will be the largest of the qualifying candidate answers...

Adam: It could not be true for any three non-related 4-digit numbers!
Betty: You were extremely lucky to find such a special number!
Dan: And now we will be able to calculate the value of your number!

Indeed, Adam(2479), Betty(6181), and Dan(8649), after a not-so-long brainstorming session successfully restored Jerry's number.

a. What was it?
b. d4 bonus question:
What's the probability of Jerry "success" with 3 RANDOMLY CHOSEN
three 4-digits numbers.
Provide your estimate, listing your assumptions and reasoning.

(In reply to proposed solution by Charlie)

Charlie is wrong in one small respect.  If two of the three numbers match, then Jerry's number is the difference between the distinct numbers, not their GCD.

Posted by Steve Herman on 2018-01-19 19:59:20