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Miscount

I have assigned a whole number to each letter of the alphabet. These numbers are not necessarily different and they include negatives and zero. With these numbers I found that

O+N+E = 1

T+W+O = 2

T+H+R+E+E = 3

and so on all the way up to

T+W+E+N+T+Y+N+I+N+E = 29.

Unfortunately, I now find that I made one slip in my additions. Just one of my 29 equations was wrong.

Which equation is wrong?

What should the sum of the letters equal in that case?

WIN £15 will be awarded to the sender of the first correct answer opened on Wednesday 4 August. The Editor’s decision is final. Please send entries to Enigma 1602, New Å®ÉúСÊÓƵ, Lacon House, 84 Theobald’s Road, London WC1X 8NS, or to enigma@newscientist.com (please include your postal address).

Answer to 1596 Semi-detached: X = 15 and Y = 8

The winner Jason Dickson of Evesham, Worcestershire, UK