A Problem of Numbers, also known as As Chemist to Chemist, is a mystery short story by Isaac Asimov.
A standalone story, it was first published in the May 1970 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. It was later collected in The Best Mysteries of Isaac Asimov.
Summary[]
A graduate student named Hal Kemp asks Professor Neddring for his approval to marry the professor's daughter, Janice. The professor agrees to give his blessing on one condition: Hal must immediately solve a cryptogram written as a string of numbers: 69663717263376833047.
Hal begins by reasoning aloud. He assumes the solution must be within his knowledge as a chemistry student. He considers the numbers as atomic numbers and breaks the sequence into ten two-digit numbers: 69, 66, 37, 17, 26, 33, 76, 83, 30, 47. He identifies the corresponding chemical elements: Thulium (Tm), Dysprosium (Dy), Rubidium (Rb), Chlorine (Cl), Iron (Fe), Arsenic (As), Osmium (Os), Bismuth (Bi), Zinc (Zn), and Silver (Ag).
He then examines the chemical symbols. Finding no sense in the first letters, he looks at the second letters of each symbol, which spell out "my blessing." He presents this as the solution.
However, Hal then confesses he had an intuitive shortcut. When the professor initially said, "Tell me what this says, and you will have my blessing," Hal suspected the phrase "my blessing" was the literal answer. He used this hint to work backward, verifying which elements had symbols whose second letters would spell out the phrase. The professor is pleased, stating that while any competent scientist can think logically, the great ones also use intuition, and he gives his full approval.
See Also[]
List of short stories by Isaac Asimov
External Links[]
- Full text (in The Best Mysteries)