The 7-11 Related Problems AwesomeMath 2011

A man goes into a convenience store, picks out four items, and goes to
check out. The cashier tells him that her cash register is broken, and she
will use her calculator. She proceeds to process the four amounts, and says,
“that will be $7.11.” “Wait a minute”, he protests, “you multiplied the prices
together”. She promptly repeats the calculation, this time adding the four
amounts, and exclaims, “There, you owe $7.11, just as I said.” (There is no
tax on food in this state.) What are the four prices? In the problems below,
let us agree that a set of positive real numbers is called a 7-11 set if the
sum of its elements is the same as their product and the problem is called
the 7 − 11 problem even though the value the common value is not $7.11.
That common number is denoted T . So the problem above is the four-item
problem with T = 7.11.
Solution The four prices are $1.25, $1.20, $1.50 and $3.16. To see how
to get these numbers, let x, y, u, and v denote the four prices, in dollars.
Then xyuv = 7.11 and x + y + u + v = 7.11. To eliminate the fractional
part, multiply each of the unknowns and rename to get x = 100x, y = 100y,
u = 100u, and v = 100v. Thus we have xyuv = 108 · 7.11 and x + y + u + v =
711. Alternatively, write the two equations in pennies. Factor the former
to get xyuv = 711 · 106 = 26 · 32 · 56 · 79. It follows that exactly one of
x, y, u, v must be a multiple of 79. For convenience, let’s say it is v. Then,
by the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic, v is one of the seven numbers
79, 158, 237, 316, 395, 474, 553, or 632.
We argue that the last four of these are too big. For example, suppose
v = 395. Then xyu = 711 · 106 ÷ 5 · 79 = 18 · 105 . We can find the least
possible sum of all triplets of such numbers by noting the geometric mean of
three numbers whose product is 18 · 105 is (18
√ · 105 )1/3 . Now the least possible
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sum x + y + u occurs when x = y = u = 18 · 105 ≈ 121.6, in which case
x + y + u + v > 711. A similar argument works for v = 474 and the other
two as well.
Next consider v = 316. In this case, xyu = 711 √ · 106 ÷ 316 =
√ 24 · 32 · 56
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and x + y + u = 711 − 316 = 395. Note that 24 32 56 = 50 3 18 > 131,
so the sum x + y + u must be at least 3 · 131 = 393. Therefore we try to
minimize x + y + u subject to xyu = 24 32 56 . In other words, among all
the triplets with the given product, what is the smallest possible sum. This
occurs when we choose x, y, and u as close together as possible. Hence, let
x = 53 = 125, y = 23 · 3 · 5 = 120 and u = 2 · 3 · 52 = 150. Amazingly, this
works.
Alternatively, lets ask which of x, y and u are multiples of 5. Since their

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The 7-11 Related Problems AwesomeMath 2011

product is a multiple of 56 , at least one of them is a multiple of 5. If only

one is a multiple of 5, then it is a multiple of 56 = 15625 which is way too
big. Thus, at least two of them are multiples of 5. Since their sum is 395 and
two are multiples of 5, the third must also be. Thus we can divide each by 5
and rename the variables to get x + y + u = 79 and xyu = 24 32 53 = 18000.
Since the cube of 79/3 is only about 18200, we must find three numbers
all in the range 20 to 30. The numbers 24, 25 and 30 fit the bill. Thus
x = 120, y = 125, u = 150 works fine.
The other three possible values of v, 79, 158 and 237, can be eliminated,
but the work is rather tedious. Thus the four prices are x = $1.25, y =
$1.20, u = $1.50 and v = $3.16.
Now there are two interesting ways to generalize this. One is to find
values of T for two, three, four, etc. items. The other is to find the item
values for a given value of T .
Problems
1. Find all values of T for the two-item 7.11 problem.

2. Try this problem with only three items. You’ll have to change the
$7.11, of course. Suppose the bill for the three items is $8.25. Find the
price of each item.

3. Find some other total costs T for which there is a three element 7-11
set whose sum is C.