Expert: Sherry Wallin - 1/31/2010

Question
Hello sir,
I wanna ask one question.......

I have given 16 numbers.
9999
5555
3333
1111
We have to add any six numbers of above and make the total 21...

We are not allowed to multiply, divide or subtract... All we have to do is ADDITION...

Just add any 6 numbers of above and make total 21.. Please sir, solve this for me......

Answer
Hi Aniket~
    Do you know that there are 74,613 different possibilities of summing 6 numbers? Do you really want to do that much work? Why not analyze what you have and what you are being asked to do?

Here is what I would do:

first what happens when you add two even numbers? You get an even number, so if you add another even number you will always get an even number.

second what happens when you add two odd numbers? You get an even number. You will have 6/2 = 3 sets of even sums. 3 even numbers added together will only give you an even answer. 21 is not even therefore it is impossible.

(Ms.) Math Prof