The Guardian Science Twitter Account posted an interesting problem and I had 10 minutes or so spare to tackle it using Python. The problem is: >> New year conundrum: complete the equation 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 = 2014 @AlexBellos http://t.co/EMedtSq9WT

number-adding.py

# The Guardian Science Twitter Account posted an interesting problem and
# I had 10 minutes or so spare to tackle it using Python. The problem is:
#
# New year conundrum: complete the equation 10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1  0 = 2014 
# @AlexBellos http://t.co/EMedtSq9WT
# 
# Not a very elegant solution but it does the job just fine

numbers = [10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0]
target  = 2014

first = numbers.pop(0)
combinations = [(str(first), first)]

while numbers:
  front = numbers.pop(0)
  array = []
  for val in combinations:
    array.append(("%s + %d" % (val[0], front), val[1] + front))
    array.append(("%s - %d" % (val[0], front), val[1] - front))
    array.append(("%s * %d" % (val[0], front), val[1] * front))
    if front != 0:
      array.append(("%s / %d" % (val[0], front), val[1] / front))
  combinations = array

# Find the combinations which add up to our target
for val in combinations:
  if val[1] == target:
    print "%s = %d" % (val[0], target)