I bought 4 items at a store having a broken cash register. The clerk used a calculator to add them up, but hit the multiplication key instead of the addition key and told me the result was $7.02. When I pointed out the error, he added them up and reported the same final bill! Is this possible, or was another error made?

DEFDBL A-Z
tot = 702
FOR a = 1 TO tot / 4
FOR b = a TO (tot - a) / 3
 ab = a * b
FOR c = b TO (tot - a - b) / 2
  d = tot - a - b - c
   abcd = ab * c * d
   IF abcd = 702000000 THEN PRINT a; b; c; d
NEXT
NEXT
NEXT

produces

 117  125  160  300
 
or, with the appropriate decimal points

 1.17  1.25  1.60  3.00

Posted by Charlie on 2013-08-30 17:29:10