rookie1ja Posted March 31, 2007 Report Share Posted March 31, 2007 Matchstick Equation - Back to the Matchstick Puzzles Move one matchstick to get the correct equation. Edit: the answer is correct only to 2 decimal digits (since equals sign has to be kept). This old topic is locked since it was answered many times. You can check solution in the Spoiler below. Pls visit New Puzzles section to see always fresh brain teasers. Matchstick Equation - solution 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 9, 2007 Report Share Posted May 9, 2007 To be anal, I must point out that this only works to two digits of Pi. As soon as you hit 3 digits, the answer is wrong. 22 / 7 ~= 3.1428571428571428571428571428571 Pi ~= 3.1415926535897932384626433832795 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rookie1ja Posted May 9, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 9, 2007 Yes, I knew that it is not absolutely precise. Nevertheless, I like the way it's solved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 16, 2007 Report Share Posted May 16, 2007 How about a non-equal sign? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 17, 2007 Report Share Posted May 17, 2007 You could actually just remove one of the matchsticks from the divide sign and place it beside the other 2 on the right side of the equals sign. This allows for the most Correct answer possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 23, 2007 Report Share Posted May 23, 2007 You could also remove one of the matchsticks from the X in the top part of the equation, turning it into XIIII/VII=II (14/7=2). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 3, 2007 Report Share Posted June 3, 2007 ya uh pi goes on forever and ever and its just really confusing...mathematicians mustve been genius to come up with that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 5, 2007 Report Share Posted June 5, 2007 You could also remove one of the matchsticks from the X in the top part of the equation, turning it into XIIII/VII=II (14/7=2). the problem with your solution is that it is no longer a roman numeral. 4 in roman is IV, not IIII. You could actually just remove one of the matchsticks from the divide sign and place it beside the other 2 on the right side of the equals sign. This allows for the most Correct answer possible. 23/7 doesn't equal 3. How about a non-equal sign? I have to agree with this solution as being the best answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 6, 2007 Report Share Posted June 6, 2007 Actually, sometimes IIII is used, please see link http://www.legionxxiv.org/numerals/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 13, 2007 Report Share Posted June 13, 2007 Answer: 22 / 7 != 2 XXII / VII != II Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 14, 2007 Report Share Posted June 14, 2007 Thanks LarryHL for the correction. I was in a hurry to post my answer and get back to work that I overlooked the final answer, lol. I did however come up with another one that you might agree will work. adjust the angle of the top match that helps make up the equals sign so that we end up with 23/7 > 2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 19, 2007 Report Share Posted June 19, 2007 haha, that works =P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 23, 2007 Report Share Posted June 23, 2007 that does seem ideal but by definition of an equation that answers fails to satisfy the requirement that the answer too must also be an equation. what you provided is an inequality which contrasts from an equation. if your answer is acceptable as is many other possible answers which turns the equal sign to a inequation sign "?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 29, 2007 Report Share Posted June 29, 2007 Actually aesculapius, these are all accepted symbols to make up a well formed equation. < less than > greater than >= greater than or equal to <= less than or equal to != not equal to = equal to ~= approximately equal to And the reason the XIIII / VII = II is not correct is because you would actually have XIII / VII = II or X/III / VII = II. If you move the other match to be straight then you have moved 2 matches. XIII is another way to write X-III, so one answer would be X-III/VII = II and this is not a valid equation. 7/7 is not 2. The other answer would come out as (10/3)/ 7 = 2 but is doesn't equal 2 but rather 0.476 (it actually goes on beyond 3 decimal places). I might be a little off on that, i did it real quick and might have missed a rule on that one lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 19, 2007 Report Share Posted July 19, 2007 OMG. I totally hate this site. Every day its something new that doesn't make any sense. Why don't you guys come up with some real brain teasers or copy some from a book or something. This is retarded. It does not equal pi. Thats as good as saying: XXII ------ = III because we'll just round that one down pretty hard core to make it work VII or XXII ---- = II because were just gonna truncate that .75 so that this works. VIII this is dumb; we cant just go ahead and round down or truncate whenever we feel like it just to make a sorry attempt at a brain teaser. Common, just try a little bit. Just a little. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 21, 2007 Report Share Posted July 21, 2007 OMG. Every day its something new that doesn't make any sense. Why don't you guys come up with some real brain teasers or copy some from a book or something. This is retarded. It does not equal pi. Thats as good as saying: XXII ------ = III because we'll just round that one down pretty hard core to make it work VII or XXII ---- = II because were just gonna truncate that .75 so that this works. VIII this is dumb; we cant just go ahead and round down or truncate whenever we feel like it just to make a sorry attempt at a brain teaser. Common, just try a little bit. Just a little. Totally agree. No wonder kids have trouble understanding Algebra when we treat the equal sign like this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 25, 2007 Report Share Posted July 25, 2007 Actually aesculapius, these are all accepted symbols to make up a well formed equation. < less than > greater than >= greater than or equal to <= less than or equal to != not equal to = equal to ~= approximately equal to Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 1, 2007 Report Share Posted August 1, 2007 simply take one matchstick from the bottom # making it six and move it to the top making that # 24 then 24 / 6= 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 4, 2007 Report Share Posted August 4, 2007 Why not just do this? Take 1 matchstiock aweay from the top and lay it over the equal sign so it becomes "not equal" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 13, 2007 Report Share Posted August 13, 2007 What about XXI + I / VI = II Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 16, 2007 Report Share Posted August 16, 2007 XXlll/Vll different to l I couldn't find the simbol Different to, so I just took one match from the result and put it diagonal on the =. The result is a truth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 13, 2007 Report Share Posted September 13, 2007 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 14, 2007 Report Share Posted September 14, 2007 Yes, but you have to move two matchsticks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 27, 2007 Report Share Posted September 27, 2007 simply take one matchstick from the bottom # making it six and move it to the top making that # 24 then 24 / 6= 2 fourth grade was not kind to you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 1, 2007 Report Share Posted October 1, 2007 I got it...how about XXXI = XXXXI! I know I moved a whole bunch of matchsticks...but 31 does equal 41...if you round the right side down by 10! I love this kind of brain teaser...give me more! I am going to use pi = 22/7 or something close to that in all my calculations from now on! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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