A math riddle - Math Central

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Question from Kathleen, a parent:

Hi,
My 4th grade daughter was given a math riddle which she is expected to answer using a problem solving strategy. The question is:

The number of my hundreds and the number of my thousands is 3. The number of my tens is 7 times the number of my thousands. All my digits are different. What am I?

I have tried to come up with an answer, but am beginning to think it is less complicated than what I have come up with.

Thanks,
Kathleen

Kathleen,

I can't make sense out of the riddle you wrote. It doesn't even mention the ones at all. To try to make sense of the riddle I took "The number of my hundreds and the number of my thousands is 3." to be "The number of my hundreds plus the number of my thousands is 3."

I think it might be 127x, where x is anything other than 1, 2 or 7. The number of the thousands is 1, the number of the hundreds is 2, so the number of the thousands plus the number of the hundreds is 3. The number of the tens is 7, which is 7 times the number of the thousands.

Stephen at Math Central.

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