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Sunday Times Teaser 3045 – Let Tel Play BEDMAS Hold ‘Em!

by BRG on January 29, 2021

by Stephen Hogg

Published Sunday January 31 2021 (link)

Awaiting guests on poker night, Tel placed (using only clubs, face-up, in order left-to-right) the Ace (=1) to 9 (representing numerals), then interspersed the Ten, Jack, Queen and King (representing -, +, x and ÷ respectively) in some order, but none together, among these.

This “arithmetic expression” included a value over 1000 and more even than odd numbers. Applying BEDMAS rules, as follows, gave a whole-number answer. “No Brackets or powErs, so traverse the expression, left-to-right, doing each Division or Multiplication, as encountered, then, again left-to-right, doing each Addition or Subtraction, as encountered.”

Tel’s auntie switched the King and Queen. A higher whole-number answer arose. Tel displayed the higher answer as a five-card “flush” in spades (the Jack for + followed by four numeral cards).

Give each answer.

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3 Comments Leave one →
  1. Brian Gladman permalink

  2. John Z permalink

    This version does not use list comprehensions:

    This alternative makes use of them:

  3. John Z permalink

    Here is a more readable functional equivalent to line 35 above:

    or better still:

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