Out of all whole numbers between one and five thousand, there is only one number that has a unique number of letters when you spell it out. What number is it?
Include spaces and dashes. For example, “twenty-four” and “two hundred” both have 11 letters.
Solution
Three thousand
Here is the reasoning:
- First, we rule out the relatively uniquely-named numbers between ten and twenty.
- “Eleven” has 6 letters, but so does “twelve”
- “Thirteen” has 8 letters, but so does “fourteen”, “eighteen”, and “nineteen”
- “Fifteen” has 7 letters, but so does “sixteen”
- “Seventeen” has 9 letters, but so does “forty-two”
- Next, recognize that all of the nonzero digits share a number of characters with other digits. So the number must end in zero.
- “One”, “two”, and “six” have 3 letters
- “Four”, “five”, and “nine” have 4 letters
- “Three”, “seven”, and “eight” have 5 letters
- Similarly, all of the tens share a number of characters with other numbers. So the number must end in two zeroes.
- “Ten” has 3 letters, but so does “one”
- “Forty”, “fifty”, and “sixty” have 5 letters
- “Twenty”, “thirty”, “eighty”, and “ninety” have 6 letters
- “Seventy” has 7 letters, but so does “fifteen”
- Similarly, all of the hundreds share a number of characters with other numbers. So the number must end in three zeroes.
- This leaves the thousands. Since we limited to numbers up to five thousand, that means “three thousand” has a unique number of letters (“seven thousand” and “eight thousand” are out of the range).
- Finally, confirm “three thousand” is the only number between 1-5000 with 14 letters.
- “Seventy-seven” is the longest 2-digit number, and it has only 13 letters.
- Out of the 3-digit numbers, the multiples of 100 are too short (tied for longest is “three hundred” with 13 letters) and all others are too long (tied for shortest is “two hundred ten” with 15 letters).
2 replies on “Unique Number of Letters”
While your reasoning is somewhat sound, your answer is incorrect.
There is a number that shares an amount of letters with three thousand – namely, One hundred one. They both share thirteen letters. Your idea of crossing out places isn’t a terrible idea, but it leads you to an incorrect answer.
The correct answer is that there is no answer.
The largest amount of letters possible is 37, with a few combinations, but we shall use the number three thousand eight hundred seventy eight. This is our maximum amount of letters possible.
Our lowest amount of numbers is 3, shared between one, two, and six.
The answer must be some where in between, right?
But each number of letters between 3 and 37 has multiple numbers that are valid.
If you wish for proof, I have a text document proving my thesis that you may ask for.
Thanks for the detailed reply – your criticism is valid.
I’ve revised the puzzle to include spaces/dashes, and added an explanation of how the solution is now unique.