30 = 35 ???
 

[pre]\/ \/ \/ - \/ \/ \/ \ /
/\ /\ /\ - /\ /\ /\ \/[/pre]

Obviously these matches show XXX=XXXV. What's the minimum number of matches to be re-arranged?

In other words: how many moves are necessary to get a correct equation?

1) equations have an equal sign (=)
2) "move" does [B][U]NOT[/U][/B] mean "throw away"

Good luck :devil:

I'll open the bidding with 8.

[spoiler]
\/ \/ \ / - \/ \/ _|_ \ /
/\ /\ \/ - /\ /\ | \/
[/spoiler]

I can do it in four, but since I haven't figured out how to do that shadowing thing yet, I'll post if nobody can beat it.

Okay folks ... solution is less than 4 and no correct post or pm seen yet :devil:

The shadowing is done by the SPOILER-tag

{SPOILER]
{FONT=courier new]
often useful to have a font like that
{/FONT]
{/SPOILER]

becomes

[SPOILER]
[FONT=courier new]
often useful to have a font like that
[/FONT]
[/SPOILER]

if and only if you use the correct left brackets [SIZE=5][B][[/B][/SIZE] instead of the false ones [SIZE=5][B]{[/B][/SIZE] I used in the example above, because I don't know how to code a [SIZE=5][B][[/B][/SIZE] here ...

:wink:

2 replacements (if you use 4 matches for each number as u wrote them down)
-michael

2 is my best, but since he said he had no correct PMs as of 12:36 and I PMed him that at 10:06 idk.

[FONT=Courier New][spoiler]\/ \/ \/ - \/ \/ \/ / |
/\ /\ /\ - /\ /\ /\ / |[/spoiler][/FONT]

hi,
what about this:
just touching the last 'X' of the equation and make a 'V' out of it:
XXX = XXVV

If you put the matches initially wide enough apart, you can even manage it with touching just one of the two matches in the last 'X':

before:

[QUOTE]\/ \/ \/ - \/ \/ \/ \ /
/\ /\ /\ - /\ /\ /\ \/ [/QUOTE]

after:

[QUOTE]\/ \/ \/ - \/ \/ \ /\ /
/\ /\ /\ - /\ /\ \/ \/[/QUOTE]

or is it all NOT what you wanna here?

cheers
uli

[spoiler]XXVV[/spoiler] that ain't "proper" Roman Numerals AFAIK :unsure:

[spoiler]
What about 0 moves?

\/ \/ \/ - \/ \/ \/ \ /
/\ /\ /\ - /\ /\ /\ \/

second x is a multiply, last x is a multiply.
[/spoiler]

First correct answer by ASDF !!!

:innocent:

[QUOTE=koal]Obviously these matches show XXX=XXXV[/QUOTE]

So your statement of the problem is not rigorous.

Besides, it is not generally acceptable to use the same symbol to be both an operator and an operand.