Contents
raw puzzle

Problem 13

Work out the first ten digits of the sum of the following one-hundred 50-digit numbers.

Solution

With an arbitrary precision library or a programming language like Python or Ruby, this task is a no-brainer. But it's more interesting to solve this problem by hand. In Problem 16, I implemented a long division to solve it, here it's also possible to remember some trivial math knowledge. When we start on the right column and sum over all 100 numbers, we get the first digit and a remainder to start with for the second column and so on. This procedure is continued until we have summed over all digits. Appending the numbers to a string allows slicing off the first 10 digits quite easily. So let's work it out:

var nums = [
  "37107287533902102798797998220837590246510135740250",
  "46376937677490009712648124896970078050417018260538",
  "74324986199524741059474233309513058123726617309629",
  "91942213363574161572522430563301811072406154908250",
  "23067588207539346171171980310421047513778063246676",
  "89261670696623633820136378418383684178734361726757",
  "28112879812849979408065481931592621691275889832738",
  "44274228917432520321923589422876796487670272189318",
  "47451445736001306439091167216856844588711603153276",
  "70386486105843025439939619828917593665686757934951",
  "62176457141856560629502157223196586755079324193331",
  "64906352462741904929101432445813822663347944758178",
  "92575867718337217661963751590579239728245598838407",
  "58203565325359399008402633568948830189458628227828",
  "80181199384826282014278194139940567587151170094390",
  "35398664372827112653829987240784473053190104293586",
  "86515506006295864861532075273371959191420517255829",
  "71693888707715466499115593487603532921714970056938",
  "54370070576826684624621495650076471787294438377604",
  "53282654108756828443191190634694037855217779295145",
  "36123272525000296071075082563815656710885258350721",
  "45876576172410976447339110607218265236877223636045",
  "17423706905851860660448207621209813287860733969412",
  "81142660418086830619328460811191061556940512689692",
  "51934325451728388641918047049293215058642563049483",
  "62467221648435076201727918039944693004732956340691",
  "15732444386908125794514089057706229429197107928209",
  "55037687525678773091862540744969844508330393682126",
  "18336384825330154686196124348767681297534375946515",
  "80386287592878490201521685554828717201219257766954",
  "78182833757993103614740356856449095527097864797581",
  "16726320100436897842553539920931837441497806860984",
  "48403098129077791799088218795327364475675590848030",
  "87086987551392711854517078544161852424320693150332",
  "59959406895756536782107074926966537676326235447210",
  "69793950679652694742597709739166693763042633987085",
  "41052684708299085211399427365734116182760315001271",
  "65378607361501080857009149939512557028198746004375",
  "35829035317434717326932123578154982629742552737307",
  "94953759765105305946966067683156574377167401875275",
  "88902802571733229619176668713819931811048770190271",
  "25267680276078003013678680992525463401061632866526",
  "36270218540497705585629946580636237993140746255962",
  "24074486908231174977792365466257246923322810917141",
  "91430288197103288597806669760892938638285025333403",
  "34413065578016127815921815005561868836468420090470",
  "23053081172816430487623791969842487255036638784583",
  "11487696932154902810424020138335124462181441773470",
  "63783299490636259666498587618221225225512486764533",
  "67720186971698544312419572409913959008952310058822",
  "95548255300263520781532296796249481641953868218774",
  "76085327132285723110424803456124867697064507995236",
  "37774242535411291684276865538926205024910326572967",
  "23701913275725675285653248258265463092207058596522",
  "29798860272258331913126375147341994889534765745501",
  "18495701454879288984856827726077713721403798879715",
  "38298203783031473527721580348144513491373226651381",
  "34829543829199918180278916522431027392251122869539",
  "40957953066405232632538044100059654939159879593635",
  "29746152185502371307642255121183693803580388584903",
  "41698116222072977186158236678424689157993532961922",
  "62467957194401269043877107275048102390895523597457",
  "23189706772547915061505504953922979530901129967519",
  "86188088225875314529584099251203829009407770775672",
  "11306739708304724483816533873502340845647058077308",
  "82959174767140363198008187129011875491310547126581",
  "97623331044818386269515456334926366572897563400500",
  "42846280183517070527831839425882145521227251250327",
  "55121603546981200581762165212827652751691296897789",
  "32238195734329339946437501907836945765883352399886",
  "75506164965184775180738168837861091527357929701337",
  "62177842752192623401942399639168044983993173312731",
  "32924185707147349566916674687634660915035914677504",
  "99518671430235219628894890102423325116913619626622",
  "73267460800591547471830798392868535206946944540724",
  "76841822524674417161514036427982273348055556214818",
  "97142617910342598647204516893989422179826088076852",
  "87783646182799346313767754307809363333018982642090",
  "10848802521674670883215120185883543223812876952786",
  "71329612474782464538636993009049310363619763878039",
  "62184073572399794223406235393808339651327408011116",
  "66627891981488087797941876876144230030984490851411",
  "60661826293682836764744779239180335110989069790714",
  "85786944089552990653640447425576083659976645795096",
  "66024396409905389607120198219976047599490197230297",
  "64913982680032973156037120041377903785566085089252",
  "16730939319872750275468906903707539413042652315011",
  "94809377245048795150954100921645863754710598436791",
  "78639167021187492431995700641917969777599028300699",
  "15368713711936614952811305876380278410754449733078",
  "40789923115535562561142322423255033685442488917353",
  "44889911501440648020369068063960672322193204149535",
  "41503128880339536053299340368006977710650566631954",
  "81234880673210146739058568557934581403627822703280",
  "82616570773948327592232845941706525094512325230608",
  "22918802058777319719839450180888072429661980811197",
  "77158542502016545090413245809786882778948721859617",
  "72107838435069186155435662884062257473692284509516",
  "20849603980134001723930671666823555245252804609722",
  "53503534226472524250874054075591789781264330331690"
];

function solution(nums) {

  var pos = nums[0].length;
  var ret = "";
  var num = 0;

  while (pos--) {

    for (var i = nums.length; i--; ) {
      num+= +nums[i].charAt(pos);
    }
    ret = num % 10 + ret;
    num = num / 10 | 0;
  }

  if (num > 0) {
    ret = num + ret;
  }
  return ret.slice(0, 10);
}
solution(nums);