What is a + b + c + d + e?

🎯 Math Games | Solution 11 | 29/7/2024

Guys I think this is the most exciting Math Games have every seen as we have a record high of 9 challengers this week! And all of them have got the correct solutions.

So let’s give a big round of applause to this week’s winners 👏👏👏

1st Place: William Keens 7 Points 🥇

2nd Place: Neil Faver 5 Points 🥈

3rd Place: Joshua Englehart 3 Points 🥉

Other Challengers: Elbling, Alfredo Esposito, Göran Åhlander, Wotsit, Prakriti Sehgal, Jonathan Lynn Harvey 1 Point 🎯

Here’s the solution 👑

Solution

I think the key to this puzzle lies in the word distinct. Notice we have the product of 5 terms, which are (6 − a)(6 − b)(6 − c)(6 − d)(6 − e).

If a, b, c, d and e are distinct, it means each of those 5 terms must also be distinct ✨

So our task is to find one way to factor 45 into distinct integer factors.

That means each of the product equals one of the integer factors.