How to solve this alphametic (verbal arithmetic)?

8.5k Views Asked by At

I know I can get the answer for this puzzle but I'm struggling to see how to solve it.

Every letter represents a different number (0-9):

    PLAYS
 +   WELL
  =======
   BETTER

So far I know that:

  • B = 1 (has to be)
  • P = 9 (because P + 1 ≥ 10)
  • E = 0 (9 + 1 = 10)
  • L + W ≥ 10
  • A + 1 = T

How do I continue from here? I can't find any more hints:

    1 1
    9LAYS
 +   W0LL
  =======
   10TT0R
1

There are 1 best solutions below

1
On BEST ANSWER

Following from the comments, including mine. There are only four possible combinations for the trio of $(A,T,Y)$: $(2,3,4), (3,4,2), (4,5,2), (4,5,3)$.

The first two are impossible because the possible values left for R and S keep the tens column from summing to 0. The third case gives both L and W as 7 or 8. That leaves 3 and 6 for R and S, the only combination of those four numbers that would work in the rightmost column is $L=7, S=6, R=3$. This gives you your final answer:

    97426
 +   8077
   ======
   105503