Daryl

[Bitchy Grammar Queen]

If the numbers 1 to 5 are written out in words: one, two, three, four, five, then there are 3 + 3 + 5 + 4 + 4 = 19 letters used in total.

If all the numbers from 1 to 1000 (one thousand) inclusive were written out in words, how many letters would be used?

NOTE: Do not count spaces or hyphens. For example, 342 (three hundred and forty-two) contains 23 letters and 115 (one hundred and fifteen) contains 20 letters. The use of "and" when writing out numbers is in compliance with British usage.

You have twenty-four hours to respond.

[daryl1730]

My answer is 47737 letters.

[Bitchy Grammar Queen]

Your answer is incorrect.

[daryl1730]

Am I within 10 letters of the correct answer?

[daryl1730]

Unique words and letter counts, grouped by relevance:
one - 3
two - 3
three - 5
four - 4
five - 4
six - 3
seven - 5
eight - 5
nine - 4

ten - 3
eleven - 6
twelve - 6
thirteen - 8
fourteen - 8
fifteen - 7
sixteen - 7
seventeen - 9
eighteen - 8
nineteen - 8

twenty - 6
thirty - 6
forty - 5
fifty - 5
sixty - 5
seventy - 7
eighty - 6
ninety - 6

hundred - 7

thousand - 8

and - 3

Common groups and letter counts:
one through nine - 36 letters. Combination appears 9 times per 100 numbers in one form and 100 times in another form. The word 'one' also appears once extra.
36 * 9 * 10 + 100 * 36 + 3 = 3240 + 3600 + 3 = 6843 letters from these words.

ten through nineteen - 70 letters. Combination occurs once every 100 numbers.
70 *10 = 700 letters from these words.

twenty through ninety - 46 letters. Combination appears 10 times per 100 numbers.
46 * 10 * 10 = 4600 letters from this combination.

hundred - 7 letters. Combination appears in every number after 99 with the exception of one thousand.
900 * 7 = 6300 letters from this word.

thousand - 8 letters. Combination appears once.
8 * 1 = 8 letters from this word.

and - 3 letters. Combination appears 99 times per 100 numbers after 99.
3 * 99 * 9 = 27 * 99 = 2673 letters from this word.

2673 + 8 + 6300 + 4600 + 700 + 6843 = 2681 + 11600 + 6843 = 14281 + 6843 = 21124 letters in this series.

I'm not really sure what the hell went wrong (or right) with that first guess.

[Bitchy Grammar Queen]

21,124 is correct.

[daryl1730]

Great

Why did I do that?

[Bitchy Grammar Queen]

Because I told you to.

[Hauskaz]

It was a pretty cool question.

[shadowdeath]

You guys have too much free time.