Tuesday, February 25, 2025

A Brain-teaser

 

Can you think of a way to move ONE wooden match to represent a number that is much, MUCH larger than the one shown?

Answer below the fold

 

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"e99" is one way to represent a "1" with 99 zeros to the right of it or 1,000,000,000^11


9 comments:

  1. Using the "If you didn't specify I can't do it then I get to do it" rule, first use a pen or sharpie to draw a period to the right of the rightmost 9. Then slide the upper right side match out of the rightmost 9 to make it a 5, and place it above the period to make an exclamation mark. This satisfies the "move one wooden match" requirement, and you now have "995!" - which is a 2553 digit number.

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    1. Addendum: If the one move of the match includes picking it up, lighting it against a striking surface, passing it by your mouth so you can blow it out, then using the charred tip to "write" the dot for the exclamation mark on the surface where all the matches are lain, then you can lay it down above the charred dot to create the "!" without needing the pen or sharpie.

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  2. Move one match to the left to create 1,299. a short '1', but still a '1'.

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  3. No, that on its own is meaningless. "e99" is an exponent, not a number on its own - it needs a leading digit to magnify.
    Jonathan

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    1. Crestfallen. That is what I am.

      I went to a spreadsheet and double-checked. You are right.

      I ASSumed that the inferred leading digit was 1.0 but the number is zero.

      Hanging my head in shame. (No, not really. I like it when my readers are smarter than me. It makes me improve my game.)

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  4. Replies
    1. Yeah, the thinking that got me there was the notation 2.7e06 entered into a cell on a spread-sheet registers as 2,700,000. I broke down the term as 2.7 * 10^6. From there, it seemed like (at least in the context of spread-sheet notation) e06 HAD to mean one million or 10^6.

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  5. I rotated the paper 180 degrees, giving me 666. Removed one match to make E66 then placed it on the right-most digit for E68. I know base ten was probably assumed, but the directions did not specify. Hexadecimal, baby!

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  6. Followup: I asked Google's new AI to convert E66 to base ten. It was wrong.

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