Puzzle Answers

Imagine there’s no zero

Solution to the math puzzle from our February, 2025 issue

1. What year would it be right now? For that matter, what century would it be? 

It is the year 2025, which means 2 thousands, 0 hundreds, 2 tens, and 5 ones. In the zero-less system, we cannot have zero hundreds; one of those thousands must be unboxed as ten hundreds. Thus, the current year would be 1T25. 

And what century is it? It’s the 1TXXs, which you might call “the ten-teen hundreds.” (We can’t say 1T00s, of course, because that would use the forbidden symbol.) 

Note, with perplexity, that the present century began not 25 years ago in 19TT (formerly 2000), but just 14 years ago in 1T11 (formerly 2011). And it will continue beyond the year 1T9T (formerly 2100), ending only in the year 2111 (a year that, at last, requires no translation.) 

2. Would a “six-figure salary” be more or less desirable than under the old system? 

Under our system, six-figure salaries go from $100,000 to $999,999. 

Under the new system, they go from $111,111 (the smallest six-digit number) to $TTT,TTT (the equivalent of our $1,111,110). 

So, a six-figure salary is more desirable under the new system. 

3. Map out the ways a zero-less culture would differ. Would towns commemorate 111th anniversaries? On a car’s odometer, which mileage rollover would be most exciting? And would anyone care that Wilt Chamberlain once scored 9T points in a basketball game? 

Your guesses are as good as mine, but I would wager on the following. 

  1. Just as we currently make a big deal out of birthdays and anniversaries ending in zero, we’d do the same for those ending in T. So would we celebrate a centennial on the 9Tth? No, my hunch is that the TTth (what we call 110th) or the 111th would be the big ones. 
  1. On a car’s odometer, it’s pretty clear to me that the coolest rollover is when you reach 111,111 miles, going from TT,TTT to 111,111. 
  1. People would still care that Chamberlain scored 9T in a single game, because no matter how you enumerate it, that’s impressive! 

And as for other ways a zero-less culture might differ: 

  1. We’d say that impressive sums of money have “lots of digits” (not “lots of zeros”). 
  1. The temperature that’s so cold all molecules slow to a stop would be known as “absolute freeze” or “the all-frozen” (not “absolute zero”). 
  1. The person from whom an infection spreads would be known as “the origin patient” (not “patient zero”). 
  1. “Zero-sum” games would be known as “win-lose” or “perfect tradeoff” games. 
  1. Game shows wouldn’t give away million-dollar prizes, since $999,99T is not a very cool-looking number. Instead, they’d give away $TTT,TTT or $1,111,111 prizes. 
  1. Instead of reading “0–0,” the scoreboard at the start of a game would have two blanks. 
  1. Learning arithmetic in school would be even more daunting than it already is! 

Ben Orlin

Twisting Words

Solution to the crossword from our January, 2025 issue