[net.puzzle] An interesting digit feature...

frederic@ubvax.UUCP (Frederic Bach) (05/30/85)

I must warn you than even a basic Basic program
running on a TRS-80 could solve this efficiently,
here it is anyhow :
The notation is different today : 
 exponents as in Pascal are written with '^'.
 (2^3=8, 3^2=9...)
can you find four decimal digits that solve

   a^b * c^d = abcd , abcd being a 4-digit number in base 10.

I repeat that you shouldn't use the trivial way of
trying all 10000 sets of values for a,b,c,d, you clever ones.

As for the replies concerning selling sheep in market
to buy bottles of Champagne, don't worry, you did get it
right ; now if you want a bottle, ask for my address in 
France (the place to have Champagne) and come over...