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Fours and Fives Crossed Fortune Formulation (Posted on 2023-02-03) Difficulty: 3 of 5
In this puzzle, letters have been consistently replaced by digits, where:
• The same letter is substituted by the same digit.
• Different letters are substituted by different digits.
• No number can contain any leading zero.

It is known that each of the numbers FOUR and FIVE is a perfect square.

Furthermore, it is known that the each of the numerical answers to the undernoted queries is constituted entirely by the digits 4 and 5.

• (a) How many squares are strictly between FOUR and FIVE?
• (b) What is one-tenth of TEN - FIVE + FOUR?
• (c) What is the lowest positive integer that must be added to TEN to make it a perfect square?

Determine the value of FORTUNE.

Source: Adapted from Enigma #674 that appeared on "New Scientist" in 1992.

See The Solution Submitted by K Sengupta    
Rating: 5.0000 (1 votes)

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Solution computer then interpretation | Comment 2 of 4 |
clearvars,clc
i=0;
for n=ceil(sqrt(1000):floor(sqrt(9999)))
  i=i+1;
  sq(i,:)=char(string(n^2));
end
for a=1:length(sq)
  for b=a+1:length(sq)
   if isequal(sq(a,:),'1024') && isequal(sq(b,:),'1369')
     xxx=9;
   end
    
    if sq(a,1)==sq(b,1)
      un=union(sq(a,:),sq(b,:));

      if length(un)==7         
         n1=sqrt(str2double(sq(a,:)));
         n2=sqrt(str2double(sq(b,:)));
         if n2-n1-1==4 || n2-n1-1==5
           disp([sq(a,:),' ',sq(b,:)])
           disp(n2-n1-1)
           this=[sq(a,:),sq(b,:)];
           lets='fourfive';           
           for letter=1:length(lets);
              build=[lets(letter) '=' this(letter) ';'];
              eval(build);
           end
           for t=1:9
             for n=1:9
               used=union(un,char(string(t)));
               used=union(used,char(string(n)));
               if length(used)==9
                 ten=100*t+10*e+n;
                 four=str2double(sq(a,:));
                 five=str2double(sq(b,:));
                 disp([(ten-five+four)/10 ten]);
               end
             end
           end
         end
      end
    end
  end
end

finds (with my annotations)

bounds                      possible values of
              (TEN-FIVE+FOUR)/10                 TEN       
1024 1369
     4 intervening squares
                      25.2                       597
                      25.3                       598
                    45                           795
                      45.3                       798
                    55                           895
                      55.2                       897
2304 2916
     5 intervening squares
                      -4.5                       567
                      -4.4                       568
                      15.3                       765
                      15.6                       768
                      25.3                       865
                      25.5                       867
7056 7921
     4 intervening squares
                     -55.1                       314
                     -54.7                       318
                     -45.2                       413
                     -44.7                       418
                      -5.2                       813
                      -5.1                       814
>> 

indicating only 1024 and 1369, where there are 4 squares strictly between them, are in the running, and that's when ten is either 795 or 895.

The next square after 795 is 841, and to get there from 795 is to add 46, which contains the forbidden 6.

The next square after 895 is 900, and all that takes is the addition of 5, an allowable digit.

FOUR FIVE TEN      FORTUNE
1024 1369 895      1048259

Edited on February 3, 2023, 11:18 am
  Posted by Charlie on 2023-02-03 11:15:57

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