New Scientist Enigma Number 505 – A Pretty Puzzle

by Christophe Maslanka

Published in Issue 1657, 25th March 1989

I was just sitting down to crumpets and honey in The Wykeham Tea Room when Bob Cowley appeared carrying a basketball. He handed me a slip of paper. “A, B & C all stand consistently for digits throughout this equation. I won’t tell you whether any of the digits are the same or not as l don’t want to spoil your fun,” said Bob.

Certainly, it was a pretty equation:

(BAABC x BA) – BAABC = ABCABC

though l had once seen a prettier one in an amusement arcade in Bognor Regis. It should, of course, be as easy as ABC to solve this before the crumpets cool. Can you help me by sending me the digits corresponding to A, B and C?