Anyone smarter than me help with this maths question?

Hawk Tuah

Hawk Tuah

Hawk Tuah

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Joined
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Can you solve this by just adding brackets?

6-5-4-3=4.

Honestly, it's bad when I can't even help my 11 year old with his homework. :o
 
There's a series of different questions with different possible answers. We've already got the correct answer for 2 and -6 and 8. It's the 4 we can't get.
 
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It's just question d. He's already got all the rest.
Maths.jpg
 
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Philtor said:
I was going to say a mathematician will figure this out, but they expect an 11 year old to do this?

Just say no brackets are required. The numbers look level enough? :D He will be top of the class.
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He's got the answer provided by touch written down, which resolves both sides of the equation to 0.

If another kid comes up with a better answer I'll let you all know.
 
Psiko said:
There's only 4 possibilities (unless you think it's a trick question and you're supposed to do silly things with the brackets but that's unlikely). No amount of brackets can change the 6-5 (=1) but you can flip the signs of the 4 and the 3.

This leaves:
1-4-3=-6
1+4-3=2
1-4+3=0
1+4+3=8

So it's probably a mistake by the teacher and they meant =8, not =4.
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Having played round with an equation solver, there are loads of possibilities depending on where you put any number of nested brackets.

6-5 can become 6(-5) for example.

However, none of them end up with 4 as the answer.
 
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dowie said:
Was it an exercise sheet, textbook, photocopy/print out of some questions written by the teacher or some questions copied down (by your son) off the board?

Some context might help - even better just take a photo of the exercise sheet or whatever and post it as you've had some people spend time trying to solve it when it's nonsense, others trying to second guess whether it's a trick question etc.
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You've already asked this once, despite this already having been provided :confused:

Anyone smarter than me help with this maths question?

We need Rachel Riley. And perhaps while she's here she can help us solve this maths problem.
forums.overclockers.co.uk forums.overclockers.co.uk
 
No idea. It's been stuck in his exercise book - so I'm guessing they were handed out slips and made use of a prit stick. No information about the origins of the exercise is available.
 
Urrrgh. Right, I've got bad news. Apparently, neither of the answers are correct. Those being

A) It's not possible
B) 6-5-(4-3)=4()

However, the teacher hasn't actually said what the right answer is. He's going to come back tomorrow and let them know. No doubt spending all evening trying to solve it, before finally admitting he's got it wrong. :rolleyes:
 
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