A tricky toothpick puzzle

This is one of the top posts on Reddit's Homework Help. #shorts

Send me suggestions by email (address at end of many videos). I may not reply but I do consider all ideas!

If you purchase through these links, I may be compensated for purchases made on Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This does not affect the price you pay.

Book ratings are from January 2022.

My Books (worldwide links)

My Books (US links)
Mind Your Decisions: Five Book Compilation
A collection of 5 books:
"The Joy of Game Theory" rated 4.2/5 stars on 224 reviews
"The Irrationality Illusion: How To Make Smart Decisions And Overcome Bias" rated 4/5 stars on 24 reviews
"40 Paradoxes in Logic, Probability, and Game Theory" rated 4.1/5 stars on 38 reviews
"The Best Mental Math Tricks" rated 4.2/5 stars on 76 reviews
"Multiply Numbers By Drawing Lines" rated 4.3/5 stars on 30 reviews

Mind Your Puzzles: Collection Of Volumes 1 To 3
A collection of 3 books:
"Math Puzzles Volume 1" rated 4.4/5 stars on 87 reviews
"Math Puzzles Volume 2" rated 4.1/5 stars on 24 reviews
"Math Puzzles Volume 3" rated 4.2/5 stars on 22 reviews

2017 Shorty Awards Nominee. Mind Your Decisions was nominated in the STEM category (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) along with eventual winner Bill Nye; finalists Adam Savage, Dr. Sandra Lee, Simone Giertz, Tim Peake, Unbox Therapy; and other nominees Elon Musk, Gizmoslip, Hope Jahren, Life Noggin, and Nerdwriter.

My Blog

Twitter

Merch

Patreon

Press

[wisestein]

Answer: 010
Me: pretty sure that’s a 2

[Koya]

Finally one of these I can actually easily solve

[krzysztofmazurkiewicz]

Dang, i saw the text first... Then i was thinking maybe there is a 10 in another non decimal system that would work. Didnt think to make 010 ;)

[刘娟妮]

make 'O C T ('T' is like a backward '7'), 'OCT'(October) stands for the 10th month of the Gregorian calendar. Voila!

[pawansmy]

Its was most easiest puzzle i ever solved 🤣 it took me less then five seconds

[RadDadisRad]

I did the 2nd solution first. I didn’t attack this literally.

[GraveUypo]

instantly solved it as soon as i saw 3 boxes

[okyoky]

Me as non-native english the hardest part of this is the word “move”.

[kangbayan]

It's a little more difficult if you ask in languages other than English

[basilbrush]

ok so take the left half of both the top left and bottom left matchstick

( you now have taken away a whole matchstick and have a one with a very narrow zero)


Then take 4 of the matchsticks from the central block
(Leaving a single vertical matchstick, representing another '1')


Now remove the central diagonal stick from the final block, leaving a wide zero


You now have '10' written twice, or '1010', the binary representation for 10!


Smashed it.


Edit: toothpicks, matchsticks, whatever. I'll use whatever I like to get between my teeth

[jamesparochetti]

I did this exact problem in 5th grade honors class back way back in 1992. I have showed this one to so many people since then. Cute math trick that gets people to look outside the box.

[mathsman]

Thumbnail : move
Video : Remove
Did you figure it out ☠️

[_Parth_Rathod_]

Only need to move 5 toothpicks to make 10
1:tilt the vertical toothpick of the first figure to make a backward slash
2: remove 3 horizontal and left-vertical toothpick

It will make ten like in segment displays

[trailmonstah]

I must be some sort of genius because I solved it in TEN seconds 😉

[kingbugszy]

The second way was my first instinct to solving the puzzle.

[vladimirrainish]

Remove bottom and two sides from the the left, so it forms letter T
Remove the right from the center so it forms letter E
Remove top and bottom from the right so it will form the letter N
6 removed and the result is word TEN

[NXE]

Since I have to place the removed ones somewhere else, I make a 10 by placing 5 of the removed ones to form a 10.

[chrisschubring]

Actually your first answer of 010 is not "10" it's actually 2.

[phqutub]

My old puzzle book had a far better matchstick problem.

[ChesapeakeWahido]

Another solution= it says 'move' not 'remove' so take the inside sticks from the last two and the four which form the outside rectangle of the first, use them to make a square root symbol over the 100 left behind