Getting the Combination, also known as Playing It by the Numbers, is a mystery short story by Isaac Asimov.
Part of the Union Club series, it was first published in the June 1982 issue of Gallery magazine. It was later collected in The Union Club Mysteries and The Best Mysteries of Isaac Asimov.
Summary[]
At the Union Club, a discussion about number puzzles prompts Griswold to recount a story. His friend Archie Bates enjoyed creating numerical sequences. Bates' wife once contacted Griswold in a state of agitation. She needed to access a new home safe containing family records and a checkbook, but her husband had set the combination himself and was out of town. She had found a slip of paper next to the safe with a sequence of numbers Bates had been working on: 1, 2, 6, 12, 60, 420, and 840, with an asterisk under the last number. She believed the next number in this series was the safe's combination.
The safe had a critical security feature, a single incorrect attempt to open it would freeze the lock, requiring a special magnetic key to reset it. Bates had taken this key with him. A failed attempt would mean the safe would have to be destroyed by a locksmith to be opened.
Griswold analyzed the number sequence and identified a pattern. Each number was the smallest integer divisible by all the integers from one up to a certain point. The number 1 is divisible by 1. The number 2 is the smallest divisible by 1 and 2. The number 6 is the smallest divisible by 1, 2, and 3. This pattern continued, with 840 being the smallest number divisible by all digits from 1 through 8. Therefore, the next number in the sequence, which would be the combination, was the smallest number divisible by all digits from 1 through 9. Griswold determined this number to be 2520. He dialed this combination into the safe and successfully opened it, allowing Mrs. Bates to retrieve the necessary documents.
Characters[]
- Griswold
- Club Member (the narrator)
- Baranov
- Jennings
- Archie Bates
- Mrs. Bates
See Also[]
List of short stories by Isaac Asimov