It's primary season which means that counting votes has surpassed stalking Kardashians as the national pastime. Not that there's anything wrong with stalking the Kardashians, but... I can't do it. Yes, there is something wrong with stalking them.
This vote-themed puzzle is for recovering Kardashian-philes and for the Kardashians themselves. Good luck!
Jody ran for president in a particular primary election, in a particular state, for a particular party, and she did quite well. Always the number nerd, she discovered something cool. The number of votes she received was the largest number you could make if you separated the digits 1-6 into two 3-digit numbers and multiplied them. For example, 123 x 456 = 56,088; she received a lot more votes than that.
How many votes did she get?
Ready for the answer?
I bet there's a way to figure this out methodically, but honestly, I reduced the possible answers by applying some simple principles and just plugged numbers into a calculator.
- Obviously, the two numbers will have their digits in descending order; e.g., 321 instead of 123.
- To get the largest product, the two numbers will be 600+ and 500+.
- A larger digit should go in a higher place (e.g., 10's place instead of 1's place) of either number before it's relegated to a lower place. That means the 3 and 4 are in the 10's place in the two numbers.
With those three restrictions, there are only 4 possibilities left:
- 642 x 531 = 341,544
- 641 x 532 = 341,012
- 632 x 541 = 341,912
- 631 x 542 = 342,002
Interestingly, the answer is found when the two numbers are closest to each other; that is, the closest it is to a square, given the conditions above. Cool, huh?
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