There is more than one right answer.
The goal of the puzzle is to solve as many equations as possible in a given amount of time. It is definitely a fun one to challenge your friends. But if you do time how long it takes to solve this puzzle, you must start at the first equation and make your way down. Skipping an equation is not allowed.
There is no trick to this question, in fact there is more than one correct answer to some of them. You just need to know a bit about math.
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First, let’s go over some the mathematical symbols that can be used to solve this puzzle. Addition (+), subtraction (-), multiplication (x), and division (/) are simple enough, but there are other mathematical operations that you might have forgotten from high school math class.
First is an exponential. An exponential function is a mathematical function of the form: f(n)=an where “n” is a variable and “a” is a constant and known as the base of the function. For example, if a=4 and n=2, then the function becomes f(2)=42=16.
Second is a square root (√), which is pretty much the reverse of an exponential. A square root of a number “a” is a number “n” such that n2=a. For example, if n=2, then 22=4, which means the square root of 4 is 2.
Third, brackets () are used to pair items together. If you remember the anagram BEDMAS, you know the order of mathematical operations are brackets, exponents, division, multiplication, addition, and then subtraction.
Finally, there is the factorial operation (!). The factorial function involves multiplying a series of descending natural numbers. The mathematical representation of this is f(n)=n x (n-1)!. You just have to remember that 0! = 1. For example, if n=4, then
f(4) = 24
Now, time for the answers I came up with in 7 minutes and 39 seconds (I am sure they are different from yours and that you were also much faster than me).
4√(4) - 4 - 4 = 8
Fun, right?
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