# A fun puzzle

1. Mar 26, 2016

### davenn

so far I have come up with 5 possibilities
Are there more ?
what one/ones did the originator think of ?
I wont post my answers till I see a few responses

Dave

2. Mar 26, 2016

### Samy_A

3. Mar 26, 2016

### davenn

yup that's one of them try for another couple :)

4. Mar 26, 2016

### Staff: Mentor

6-4≠4

5. Mar 26, 2016

### davenn

you are on to one of the good variations ... there are several of those

6. Mar 26, 2016

### micromass

8-4=4

7. Mar 26, 2016

### Samy_A

A regular one, less fun than Borek's:

8-4=4

8. Mar 26, 2016

### Samy_A

Another one
0+4=4
Variation on Borek's method:
5+4≠4

9. Mar 26, 2016

### Ibix

Hee are four
5+4=9
8-4=4
5+4$\neq$4
6-4$\neq$4
Edit: although nothing anyone else didn't come up with, I see.
Edit edit: fixed typo (x2)

Last edited: Mar 27, 2016
10. Mar 26, 2016

### davenn

awesome, between the 3 of you, you have covered the 5 that I found

I am not sure if there are others or not

Dave

11. Mar 26, 2016

### davenn

have you found the 5th one ?

you posted the edit while I was posting

12. Mar 26, 2016

### Ibix

Yeah - I clicked on the spoiler in Samy's #8 and there it was.

I got the other four without looking.

13. Mar 26, 2016

### zoobyshoe

I question this one on the grounds it violates conservation of mass: a matchstick has appeared magically where there was none before.

14. Mar 26, 2016

### Ibix

Indeed - I've corrected the typo.

15. Mar 26, 2016

### davenn

you better go back and re-edit
you have 2 the same now

16. Mar 27, 2016

### Ibix

Gah! I think it's right now. I wish I'd been drinking yesterday so I had an excuse for that...

17. Mar 27, 2016

### Ibix

Wait - my original typo (preserved by Zooby) is valid if you are happy to accept a slightly malformed 6. Take the top bar of the 6 - the result is recognisably a 6. Or is that cheating?

18. Mar 27, 2016

### OmCheeto

I could come up with only 3 new ones.

A: Take a match from either the 6 or + , and light the 6 and + on fire, leaving 4 = 4

B: Pick up any match, wave it in someones face and say; "I'm MOVING it.", and then put it back where it was, as the equation is correct in modulo 6. [ref]

C: 6 + 4 = 11 in base 9

19. Mar 27, 2016

### Staff: Mentor

The energy of the unbalanced equation got converted to the atoms of a matchstick.
6=4=4 mod 2
6-H=4 for suitable H
6-4=H and a few more similar ways.
6+4+4 - it fixes the problem that there was an equation?
6-4=4 - then use the match to threaten someone to fix the equation in any way. You move one match to fix the equation.

20. Mar 27, 2016

### OmCheeto

You're solution #4 reminds me of a variation of my first solution

Take one match and light all the rest of them on fire.