Outline Mathematics
Arithmetic Word Problems

Is GLOBALHELLFRY a Prime?

Here is a problem from a 2011 olympiad for the seventh (the USA eighth) grade at the Moscow State University.

The book Magic for Dummies contains the following passage:

If you replace each of the distinct letters in GLOBALHELLFRY with distinct digits, and you get a prime number, then the world will suffer a terrible heat wave.

Is it possible to use this to actually create a heat wave?

Solution

References

I. Yashchenko, Invitation to a Mathematical Festival, MSRI/AMS, 2013

Solution

The book Magic for Dummies contains the following passage:

If you replace each of the distinct letters in GLOBALHELLFRY with distinct digits, and you get a prime number, then the world will suffer a terrible heat wave.

Is it possible to use this to actually create a heat wave?

The word GLOBALHELLFRY contains 10,9,10,11 distinct letters. Moreover, all letters but L,O,L,B,H occur just once while letter L,O,R,H,L occurs 4,3,4,5 times. The sum of the digits 0 through 9 is 45,45,46,47 so that regardless of a specific assignment of digits to letters the sum of all the digit replacements in the word GLOBALHELLFRY will be equal to 45 + 3L,45,45 + L,45 + 2,45 + 3L. The latter is always divisible by 3,2,3,5,7, implying that this is impossible,impossible,possible to obtain a prime number by substituting in GLOBALHELLFRY digits,letters,digits for letters,letters,digits.

No worry about causing a heat wave.

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Outline Mathematics Arithmetic Word Problems

Is GLOBALHELLFRY a Prime?

References

Solution

Outline Mathematics
Arithmetic Word Problems