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LowlyPion
Aug28-08, 12:52 AM
Chadwick worked as personal secretary to Forbisher. He was given a list to type up that Forbisher was to submit to the London Telegraph puzzle editor within the hour because he was certain he had solved the puzzle. However Chadwick carelessly dropped a cigarette on the paper before he had a chance to transcribe it. A burn hole made the number next to the second entry impossible to recover. With his boss unavailable, his only choice to save his position was to put a number in and submit it in a timely fashion.

What number should Chadwick put in?

Belize - 51
Bolivia - ?
Andorra - 500
Chad - 600
Vietnam - 1006
Mali - 1051
Colombia - 1151
Dominica - 1602

JDEEM
Aug28-08, 12:14 PM
57 ?

LowlyPion
Aug28-08, 12:36 PM
That would be correct.

Sakha
Aug28-08, 06:39 PM
Can you explain the answer because I don't get from where that 57 comes from

rootX
Aug28-08, 09:21 PM
I was thinking about putting it into linear system and solving it

but, 18 vars and 8 equations! :shy:

LowlyPion
Aug28-08, 11:16 PM
Can you explain the answer because I don't get from where that 57 comes from

The values are derived from the Roman numerals that are contained within the spelling of the names of the country. < I,V,X,L,C,D,M >
I avoided the use of S that might have been taken as 1/2 because I thought its use was more obscure.

Before anyone says "Aww, no fair." I happened across a similar problem some years ago and puzzled over it for some time before realizing the approach to the solution.