Treebeard's Stumper 28 April 2000

Are We There Yet?

We've all been noticing our mileage with recent high gas prices. My car has two odometers that measure mileage. There's a six-digit counter that measures total miles, and a four-digit trip odometer that I can reset with a button. Recently, I noticed my odometer read [1 3 2 4 5 6]. Too bad the bottom was [5 4 9 0] instead of [7 8 9 0] (no tenths), not quite in order, but all the digits different at once! When should I have reset the trip odometer to make that happen? When should I next press reset so they'll all be different again as soon as possible?

My odometer really did reach this setting, and I managed to capture the moment! The trip odometer in my car actually measures tenths of a mile. I ignored that to simplify the stumper. I don't think I've ever pegged my Chevy Spectrum (pre-GEO) at 85 mph, but it still gets 40+ miles/gallon, important on a teacher's salary!

Answer

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