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Add down to One (Posted on 2003-05-21) Difficulty: 3 of 5
The numbers 0-9 are lined up in a row, like this:

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

You have to put in + and - signs in the blanks, so that in the end it will all equal 1.

Also, if possible, try to make expressions resulting in 0 and -1.

See The Solution Submitted by Jonathan Waltz    
Rating: 2.5000 (6 votes)

Comments: ( Back to comment list | You must be logged in to post comments.)
re(4): Solution | Comment 14 of 17 |
(In reply to re(3): Solution by DJ)


Since 0 is on the extreme left and we are required to put in + sign and - sign in the 'blanks', we don't have the option of assigning a 'minus' to 0.

Hence 0 must always remain in the complimentary (+ sign) subsets. The presence of 0 in any main (- sign) subset would render the subset 'unminussable'.

So, there will be only 23 subsets.

But I take DJ's point. I should've added the 'non-zero' or 'minussability' criteria while defining the subsets.
  Posted by Sanjay on 2003-05-23 14:28:47

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