Daily Math Puzzle: 2026-09-07

9 — Let's analyze the addition column by column, denoting carries as C1, C2, C3 from right to left: 1. **Units Column:** D + E = T (or 10 + T, if there's a carry C1). 2. **Tens Column:** I + S + C1 = L (or 10 + L, if there's a carry C2). 3. **Hundreds Column:** C + A + C2 = A (or 10 + A, if there's a carry C3). 4. **Thousands Column:** A + B + C3 = S (or 10 + S, if there's a carry C4). Let's focus on the 'Hundreds Column' (C + A + C2 = A or 10 + A). This equation can be rewritten as: C + C2 = 10 * C3 Here's the crucial deduction: - 'C' is a digit, and since it's part of the number ACID, it cannot be 0. So C must be between 1 and 9. - 'C2' is a carry from the tens column, so it can only be 0 or 1. - 'C3' is a carry to the thousands column, so it can only be 0 or 1. Let's consider the possibilities for C3: - If C3 = 0: Then C + C2 = 0. Since C >= 1 and C2 >= 0, C + C2 must be at least 1. Therefore, C + C2 cannot be 0. So, C3 cannot be 0. - If C3 = 1: Then C + C2 = 10. - Since C2 can only be 0 or 1: - If C2 = 0, then C + 0 = 10, which means C = 10. This is not a single digit, so C2 cannot be 0. - If C2 = 1, then C + 1 = 10, which means C = 9. This is a valid single digit. Therefore, 'C' must uniquely represent the digit 9. (It can be shown that there are indeed valid solutions to the entire cryptarithm with C=9, L=0, and different values for S, e.g., A=1, B=5, C=9, D=6, E=8, I=2, L=0, S=7, T=4 or A=4, B=6, C=9, D=5, E=7, I=8, L=0, S=1, T=2. However, the value of C is uniquely determined regardless of other specific letter assignments.)