Without using any arithmetical symbols (+, -, *, /, or similar; other math symbols; decimal comma or periods; letters; even parentheses) or, in short, anything but the digits, build a number with the digits 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9, that is equal to a number built with the digits 2, 4, 6 and 8 (each digit used once and only once).

Note: This is not a trick. It was extracted from a book edited by Angela Dunn, a mathematician who gathered problems that appeared in many scientific periodical revues!

Other than using subscripts as base notation, about the only other thing I can think of that you can do without any other symbols is raise a number to a power.  Since any odd number to any power is always odd, and any even number to any power is always even, it would appear that raising numbers to powers isn't enough to get to a solution.

How about using a combination of base notation and powers?

Edited on July 1, 2005, 4:17 am

Posted by Ken Haley on 2005-07-01 04:16:39