A puzzle by Henry Dudeney:
“It will be seen that we have arranged six cigarettes so as to represent the number 57. The puzzle is to remove any two of them you like (without disturbing any of the others) and so replace them as to represent 0, or nothing.”
|
SelectClick for Answer |
“Remove the two cigarettes forming the letter L in the original arrangement, and replace them in the way shown in our illustration. We have the square root of 1 minus 1 (that is 1 less 1), which is clearly 0.”
If that’s too obscure, “we can remove the same two cigarettes and, by placing one against the V and the other against the second I, form the word NIL, or nothing.”
From his Modern Puzzles and How to Solve Them, 1926.
10/09/2023 UPDATE: Another solution, by reader Drake Thomas:
(Thanks, Drake!)
|
