Four to Make Forty

Last Question:

Unscramble the letters

t-r-e-b-e

to describe a french hat

Answer:

b-e-r-e-t

This week’s Challenge:

This problem will take a few days to solve, so it is perfect for the holidays when you are looking for fun activities. I will post the answer on New Year’s day.

Consider the numbers 1 to 40, inclusive. Imagine trying to express each of those numbers as a combination of other numbers that are added or subtracted together – for example, 3 can be 1+2 or it can be 4-1.

Identify four numbers that, either singly or combination with some or all the other three numbers, can express every number from 1 to 40. In each combination however, any given number can appear only once – for example, 5 + 5 is not allowed. To check your answer fill in the table below with the various combinations.

1 =

2=

3=

4=

5=

6=

7=

8=

9=

10=

11=

12=

13=

14=

15=

16=

17=

18=

19=

20=

21=

22=

23=

24=

25=

26=

27=

28=

29=

30=

31=

32=

33=

34=

35=

36=

37=

38=

39=

40=

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