Hello math-fun, I need a little help with a huge calculation. It's about cryptarithms (or alphametics) I'm trying to find *the* ultimate, biggest ever cryptarithm in french (solution must be unique and *big* is evaluated in term of « largest quantity of terms left to the equal sign ») I think that this ultimate cryptarithm will look like that : TROIS + TROIS + TROIS + ... + TROIS + ZERO + ZERO + ZERO + ... + ZERO = TRENTETROISMILLIONSTRENTETROISMILLETRENTETROIS Ten letters are used. This could be re-written in a more compact form for easier use : 11011011*TROIS + k*ZERO = TRENTETROISMILLIONSTRENTETROISMILLETRENTETROIS What could be the highest value of « k » to make this equation doubly true ? If, after having chosen an arbitrarly 42-digit long value for k, I drop the according equation into Robert B. Israel's (marvelous) applet, I'm in trouble ! http://www.geocities.com/rbisrael/metic/metic.html To see what I mean, copy and paste this into the applet : 991*UN + NEUF + 51*ZERO = MILLE (k=51, here) Best, É.