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The Bailey Challenge
An addi(c)tion problem
I entered Rose Poly in 1943 at age seventeen. The nearest roadhouse was Johnny’s
Tavern on Wabash Ave. at Fruitridge. The sophomores herded all the freshmen to this
establishment on the first Saturday night so that we could become men. I had a bit of gin
and got very sick, permanently ending my chances for manhood. I then turned to Coca-Cola
and drank four bottles per day. Phil Brown, who taught two history courses and coached all
varsity sports, told me that I had an addiction and that soda pop was swill. Fifty-five
years later, I can take it or leave it. This bit of autobiography leads into the first
problem for this issue.
SODA
SODA
SODA
SODA
______
POPS
In this addition problem each letter represents a digit. You are to find values for the
letters so that four times SODA equals POPS. The usual rules hold: a digit is represented
by only one letter, a letter represents only one digit, and leading coefficients are not
zero.
PROBLEM 1: Find a solution of the above problem Are there other solutions? (Your bright
teenage children might like this problem and we would welcome their independent solutions
along with their names.)
PROBLEM 2: A young entrepreneur bought all the watermelons in an Indiana field for 15
cents per pound, shipped them down river and sold them in New Orleans for 30 cents per
pound. The water content of the melons was 99% in Indiana. Some shipboard drying reduced
their water content to 98% by the time they arrived in New Orleans. If the shipping
charges were $200, what was her net profit or loss?
As to the balancing problems of the spring issue, we received but one solution from alumni
who graduated in the last 22 years. I hope this does not reflect on our teaching of static
equilibrium, but rather on the busy corporate lives of our young executives. Solvers of
these problems were: R. C. Mott ‘43, W. C. Soudriette ’43, C. E. Cooke ’49,
J. Tindall ’61, D.Todd ’62, A. K. Mahler ’71, M. R. Bailey ’76, J.G.
Schroeder ’76, C. Abdnour ’89 and W. Orr.
Send your solutions of the summer problems and or requests for previous solutions to Herb
Bailey, Rose-Hulman, 5500 Wabash Ave., Terre Haute, IN, 47803 or via e-mail
to:Herb.Bailey@rose-hulman.edu herb.bailey@rose-hulman.edu.
 
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