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I am not sure what title to put as the question really has both me and my son confused. It says this:

"If PLUS equals 68, what does MINUS equal?"

and the choices are:

A. 102 B. 76 C. 120 D. 46

and the answer provided in the answer key was 76.

Maybe someone here has encountered some problem with a similar logic? We are utterly confused at where to start with the solution and have tried researching about inverse, etc.

Hoping someone can help with this. Thanks :)

RC Wong
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    Let $A=1$, $B=2$,...,$Z=26$. Now add the letters of each together. You will get: $$PLUS\implies P+L+U+S=16+12+21+19=68$$ $$MINUS\implies M+I+N+U+S=13+9+14+21+19=76$$ – projectilemotion Jun 26 '18 at 10:48
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    The most baffling thing is why anyone would call this "math training". – rschwieb Jun 26 '18 at 10:49
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    It's a bit like calling crosswords "author training". – rschwieb Jun 26 '18 at 10:57
  • Thanks everyone for your quick replies. It is amazing how helpful everyone in this community is :) @rschwieb: I completely agree. And the funny thing is I just found out that the person who gave this "training material" got this from a Math Olympiad book which is currently being sold lol – RC Wong Jun 26 '18 at 11:11

1 Answers1

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Sum up the positions of the letters in the alphabet beginning with

  • $A = 1 \Rightarrow$ $$PLUS = P+L+U+S = 16+12+19+21=68$$
trancelocation
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  • OMG thank you so much for answering this. I guess we have been too concentrated on numbers and solving stuff that this completely flew by. – RC Wong Jun 26 '18 at 11:10