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jmc

number theory senior

Problem

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson recover a suitcase with a three-digit combination lock from a mathematician turned criminal. Embedded in the suitcase above the lock is the cryptic message "AT SEA BASE. SEAS EBB SEA: BASS. "

Dr. Watson comments, "This probably isn't about ocean fish. Perhaps it is an encrypted message. The colon suggests the addition problem , where each letter represents a distinct digit, and the word 'BASE' implies that the problem is in a different base."

Holmes calmly turns the combination lock and opens the suitcase. While Dr. Watson gapes in surprise, Holmes replies, "You were indeed right, and the answer was just the value of the word , interpreted as decimal digits." What was the lock combination?
Solution
We must solve the addition problem \begin{array}{@{}c@{\;}c@{}c@{}c@{}c@{}c} & & S & E & A & S_d \\ & & & E & B & B_d \\ + & & & S & E & A_d\\ \cline{1-6} & & B & A& S& S_d\end{array}, where is an unknown base. It follows that leaves a residue of upon division by . Thus, must be divisible by . Since and cannot both be , and , then .

Looking at the s digit, we must carry-over from the units digit sum, so . Since , then . Thus, or and . However, the latter is impossible since is the leftmost digit of 'SEAS' and 'SEA'. Thus, , and we again carry-over to the digit.

Looking at the digit, after carry-over, it follows that . Note that . Then, is either equal to , , or . However, we can immediately discard the case: there would be no carry-over for the leftmost digit, so are not distinct.

In the next case, if , then there is a carry-over of to the last digit. It follows that . This gives us the system of equations Setting the first and fourth equations equal to each other yields that , and since , substituting for and yields that . This contradicts the distinct digits criterion.

Thus, , so . Also, we have that , due to the carry-over in the leftmost digit. Substituting for and yields that , so . Thus, and . Also, and are decimal digits, so it follows that . We can discard the solution , as but . Thus, , occurring in base . The answer is .
Final answer
871