Million maths

I did say no brackets

Originally posted by sonhouse
Exactly how does that violate the requirements of the first post? A negative number is lower than zero in ANYONE's maths book. I can't help it if he defined the problem inexactly. If he wanted the series end to be exaclty zero he should have specified that. There was no such specification, therefore any negative number is a valid answer.
He specified, and ...[text shortened]... lowest number you can get to?"
Hey, so I am lawyering up, that's what logic is all about🙂

The problem with your answer is not that its negative (if anyone can get below zero then I imagine that would win) but thwe question quite clearly stipulates using the numbers 1-9. That is different to using the digits 1-9.

Originally posted by SwissGambit
I think I just might be able to beat it.

Start with:
1,000,000
/8 = 125000
/2 = 62500
-4 = 62496
/6 = 10416
/7 = 1488
/3 = 496
-1 = 495
/9 = 55
/5 = [b]11[/b]

Excellent!

I thought I had won that one! :'(

Noo!

You're all winners in my book wolfgang 😉

and 11 is quite incredible. I can't see a way it's getting any smaller either.

1,000,000 - 1 = 999,999
999,999 - 9^8^7^6^5^4^3^2 = 999,999 - 1.1428272664857169822777394978308e+38475
= - 1.1428272664857169822777394978308e+38475 (less a little more)

I WIN!

Actually, even bigger is:

1,000,000 - 1 = 999,999
999,999 - 2^3^4^5^6^7^8^9 = ??? Calculator couldn't handle that noise!

Originally posted by wolfgang59
The problem with your answer is not that its negative (if anyone can get below zero then I imagine that would win) but thwe question quite clearly stipulates using the numbers 1-9. That is different to using the digits 1-9.

You lost me on that one. What is the difference between numbers and digits? They sound like the same beast to me.

Originally posted by sonhouse
You lost me on that one. What is the difference between numbers and digits? They sound like the same beast to me.

Two numbers - one and four.
Two digits 1 and 4
You can put the two digits together and get 14 (fourteen), you can't get that result with two numbers (one and four = five). Getit?

The digit one (1) means different numbers depending on where it's at. For example - 1 means one, 10 makes the '1' mean ten, 100 make the '1' mean one-hundred etc. It's the same digit - but very different numbers.

And anyway - if going by your rules ... why didn't you just subtract 987654321?

Originally posted by sonhouse
You lost me on that one. What is the difference between numbers and digits? They sound like the same beast to me.

Digits are the individual symbols used to write numbers.

I still win!

Originally posted by sonhouse
You lost me on that one. What is the difference between numbers and digits? They sound like the same beast to me.

Another way of thinking about difference of numbers and digits is to consider problem in another base.

ie same problem using base 2 would involve using only numbers 1, 10, 11, 100, 101, 110, 111, 1000 and 1001 and you can see that the clever solutions using digits are invalid.

The difference between number and digit is a difficult concept for kids. They will often say add a 2 to 1 to make 12, some teachers use the same incorrect language which further confuses them. For instance my pet hate: "to multiply by 10 just add a zero" !!!

I still win!

Originally posted by sonhouse
Exactly how does that violate the requirements of the first post? A negative number is lower than zero in ANYONE's maths book. I can't help it if he defined the problem inexactly. If he wanted the series end to be exaclty zero he should have specified that. There was no such specification, therefore any negative number is a valid answer.
He specified, and ...[text shortened]... lowest number you can get to?"
Hey, so I am lawyering up, that's what logic is all about🙂

Oh, I had no problem with the negatives, I beat your score on that one :p

My problem was with the following:

"1E6 /5=200,000/8=25,000/4=6250/2=3125-(97631)=-94506"

1,000,000 = -94506 ? I sure hope not!

Sadly, students do this all too often. You meant it well, but what you typed is simply wrong 🙂

Originally posted by TheMaster37
Oh, I had no problem with the negatives, I beat your score on that one :p

My problem was with the following:

"1E6 /5=200,000/8=25,000/4=6250/2=3125-(97631)=-94506"

1,000,000 = -94506 ? I sure hope not!

Sadly, students do this all too often. You meant it well, but what you typed is simply wrong 🙂

I hate when my students do that too.

Oh and... I STILL WIN!

Originally posted by TheMaster37
Oh, I had no problem with the negatives, I beat your score on that one :p

My problem was with the following:

"1E6 /5=200,000/8=25,000/4=6250/2=3125-(97631)=-94506"

1,000,000 = -94506 ? I sure hope not!

Sadly, students do this all too often. You meant it well, but what you typed is simply wrong 🙂

Well none of the answers would be right in that logic, 1,000,000=11? What's the dif between that and 1,000,000=-94000?