jhillis (10/22/82)
Awhile back, someone submitted an article concerning a long division
problem with the numbers replaced by letters. I found the article
the other evening while cleaning out some files and thought I'd give
it a try.
The problem:
R A T E
----------------
S T E P / V P O O T O P Y
O R A E R
---------
T P A O O
I Y I E A
---------
I I O P P
I P Y E T
---------
V E R Y
It took me about 10 minutes (I made a subtraction mistake) to solve this.
The method I used was partially ordered sets. To use this method, you simply
make obvious comparisons between letters (ie s>v,t=i+1, etc) until you have
built a partial ordering between the letters. In the worst case, after all
possible comparisons have been made you simply make a few guesses to get
the solution. In this case that wasn't necessary once you notice p=1
(r*step=oraer, a*step=iyiea, etc).
Jeffrey Hillis
BTL-IH
..ihuxf!jhillis