What is the positive difference in the sum of the letters in the words MATH and COUNTS, if each letter is assigned a value as follows: A=1, B=-2, C=3, D=-4,..., Y=25, Z=-26?
Check 4-2-11,8:02pm post for solution.
To find the positive difference in the sum of the letters in the words MATH and COUNTS using the assigned values, we need to calculate the sum of the letters in each word separately and then find the positive difference between the two sums.
Step 1: Assign values to the letters.
A = 1
B = -2
C = 3
D = -4
...
Y = 25
Z = -26
Step 2: Calculate the sum of the letters in the word MATH.
M = ?
A = 1
T = ?
H = ?
To find the value of each letter, we need to subtract the ASCII value of 'A' (which is 65) from the ASCII value of each letter and add 1 to it since A is assigned a value of 1.
For M:
ASCII('M') - ASCII('A') + 1 = 77 - 65 + 1 = 13
For T:
ASCII('T') - ASCII('A') + 1 = 84 - 65 + 1 = 20
For H:
ASCII('H') - ASCII('A') + 1 = 72 - 65 + 1 = 8
So, the sum of the letters in the word MATH is 13 + 1 + 20 + 8 = 42.
Step 3: Calculate the sum of the letters in the word COUNTS.
C = 3
O = ?
U = ?
N = ?
T = ?
S = ?
Following the same process as above, we find:
For O:
ASCII('O') - ASCII('A') + 1 = 79 - 65 + 1 = 16
For U:
ASCII('U') - ASCII('A') + 1 = 85 - 65 + 1 = 22
For N:
ASCII('N') - ASCII('A') + 1 = 78 - 65 + 1 = 14
For T:
ASCII('T') - ASCII('A') + 1 = 84 - 65 + 1 = 20
For S:
ASCII('S') - ASCII('A') + 1 = 83 - 65 + 1 = 19
So, the sum of the letters in the word COUNTS is 3 + 16 + 22 + 14 + 20 + 19 = 94.
Step 4: Calculate the positive difference.
The positive difference is the absolute value of the difference between the two sums.
Positive difference = |42 - 94| = 52.
Therefore, the positive difference in the sum of the letters in the words MATH and COUNTS is 52.