my @well = split ('', $well);
    $highest = $well[0];   # definately problems here, cant pick out $
+well[0]
[download]

that should be okay. Why do you think there is a problem? Your problems are here:

for ($i = 0; $i < @well; $i++)   {
#                 scalar(@well) here

              if ($well[$i] > $highest)    {

                     $highest = $numbers[$i];
#                               $well[$i] here
               }  
     }
[download]

You could also write your loop with:

foreach $number (@well) {
  $highest=$number if $highest<$number;
}
[download]