Kerry Mitchell:
It appears that j, k, and z are not used in the American way of writing positive integers. Is there a positive integer that uses all 23 of the other letters? If so, what's the smallest?
Allan Wechsler:
I'll start the bidding with one octillion, one septillion, one quadrillion, one million, one billion, two hundred twelve thousand, four hundred sixty eight (1,001,000,000,001,001,001,212,468). I bet I missed a trick or two, though.
Your number being 1001000000001000001001212468 actually. (Some missing zeros.) I get 1001000000001000001001002568: one octillion, one septillion, one quadrillion, one billion, one million, two thousand, five hundred, sixty-eight. The 'octillion' is the smallest number for 'c'. The 'septillion' is the smallest number for 'p'. The 'quadrillion' is the smallest number for 'q'. The 'billion' is the only number for 'b'. The 'million' is the smallest number for 'm'. That leaves us looking for 'f', 'g', 'v', 'w', 'x', 'y' and I believe 2568 is the smallest number containing those.