Ready for a little exercise? I have a couple math puzzle sprints for you today. To get ready, stretch out those brain muscles; we wouldn't want to you strain something. For both of these, set your stopwatch and see how long it takes you.
In each of the blanks, put in a standard mathematical operation (like +, -, ×, /, etc.) to make this equation true. Ready... set... go!
1 _ 2 _ 3 _ 4 _ 5 _ 6 _ 7 _ 8 _ 9 = 45
Whew! Good? Now, as fast as you can, make it equal 46.
Ready for the answer?
Am I cruel to ruin your weekend with a math puzzle sprint? I hope you don't think so; I like math puzzles, but I'm weird. At least that's what my wife tells me. The reason it was a sprint is because it's actually really easy. The sum of the numbers 1 through 9 is 45. So just put in a + in every blank! But what about making it equal 46? It's just one small change from the first answer if you recognize that 2 × 3 is 1 more than 2 + 3. Change that + to × and you're done:
1 + 2 × 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 = 46
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