Your challenge, should you decide to accept it, is to create an equation with the following qualities:

1) The only mathematical functions allowed are addition and subtraction.
2) The equation must be written twice, once in numerical form, and once with the numbers spelled out as words.
3) In the "word equation", when the letters of each words are "added" (as in "ONE" plus "TWO" would equal "ONETWO") or "subtracted" (for example, "ZEROTEN" minus "ONE" would equal "ZERT" or "ZRTE") to the other words, the final result of all the additions and subtractions should be a word for a number.
4) The "word equation" and the "numerical equation" should result in the same number.


I only know of one answer, but others may be possible.

Sounds like a nice problem. Along the same lines as the anagram

eleven plus two = twelve plus one

/Tomas

I'd forgotten about that anagram. However, I should mention that the functions aren't spelled out in the word equation. They're performed as described above. In your example,

ELEVEN + TWO = ELEVENTWO

Unfortunately, this wouldn't work because ELEVENTWO isn't a name for a real number.

Tomas is on the right track. A little rearranging of terms
gives: TWO + ELEVEN - ONE = TWELVE.

(When subtracting ONE from TWOELEVEN, you have a choice as to
which E is subtracted. Choose the second E.)

2+11-1=12

Stan Alger

How about:

ONE HUNDRED ONE - ONE = ONE HUNDRED
ONE HUNDRED TWO - TWO = ONE HUNDRED
etc.

Did I miss a rule?

leonard

Another one:

NINETEEN - SEVENTEEN - NINE + SEVEN + ONE = ONE

Similar answers using other combinations of 14, 16, 17, 19, 4, 6, 7 and 9.

Stan got the one I was shooting for, but I love the others by leonard as well. They qualify quite well.

Although for your latter one, Leonard, I would re-phrase it as:

SEVEN+NINETEEN-SEVENTEEN-NINE+ONE=ONE

In your initial equation you technically can't take away SEVENTEEN from NINETEEN, since the letters are there at that point. Done as I just put it, however, it can work. As an added bonus, the numerical equation doesn't go into negative numbers.

I think the solution you wanted is such a nice one that it is worth it to add further restraints of the original problem to force that solution. You want to avoid solutions such as TWENTYONE-ONE=TWENTY, TWENTYTWO-TWO=TWENTY, ..., NINETYNINE-NINE=NINETY.

So I guess the new problem is: State the conditions to force the solution to be
TWO + ELEVEN - ONE = TWELVE

/Tomas

Scott,
Nice puzzle. Thanks. And I agree totally with your restatement. Mathematically it doesn't matter, but within the parameters of the problem, rearrangement makes sense.

Tomas,
I agree. I haven't been able to come up with any useful conditions either. However, I am not sure there is not another "elegant" answer (i.e. I haven't given up yet).

Scott,
In the word equation, does the answer have to be in the correct order, or can the letters be rearranged?