h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've tried+I've tried+I've tried+I've tried+I've tried+I've tried+I've tried+I've tried+I've tried+I've tried+I've tried+I've tried+I've tried......

1685894

Any hints?

You want a Hint? not a solution?

Well here goes...

First Hint: combine the second & third digit to make one number work out how to take 26 away from that...

Another hint.
Starting with the very simple formula of addition of all the individual digits, the sum is 41.
If you can find a way to fiddle with the formula to change the result by 1, you're there.


If a formula is of the form a+b+c+d+e, if you change one + to a -, you can lower the result by twice the number that follows, so you can easily get a result that is lower by 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d, or 2e.

To increase the result of a formula, the simplest 2 ways are by multiplying two adjacent digits, or concatenating them to make a 2-digit number.
If concatenating digits, if you change 'M+N' to 'MN', you increase the result by 9*M (adding M*10, and removing the original single M).
Effectively, that gives a way to increase a result in multiples of 9. For example, if you change '...+ 4+7 +...' to '...+ 47 +...', you increase the result by 36 (4*9), since 47 is 36 higher compared to 11 (4+7).

1685894

5+8+9+4= 26

Oh, honestly. It just shows you can't trust the computerised ones.

1*68-5-8-9-4...

"computerised ones"?

Welcome, Mogget, to the knights of the DoQuaDecagonic Table.

http://42.kaitak.org/

is the computerised one.