# Sticks and stones may break my sum

13 sticks and two stones are laid out as follows:

Move three items so the arrangement makes sense.

Only the basic functions ×÷-+= are allowed.

• @boboquack That would be allowed. – rybo111 Jul 2 '17 at 10:33
• Can you make the stones more prominent, please? I missed them at first. – Beastly Gerbil Jul 2 '17 at 10:41
• can we have / as divide? – Beastly Gerbil Jul 2 '17 at 10:48
• @BeastlyGerbil No – rybo111 Jul 2 '17 at 10:49
• I usually wait until the puzzle is at least around 18 hours old, that gives most timezones a chance to view. – boboquack Jul 2 '17 at 10:51

Nice puzzle! I found this:

## Edit breaks this old answer

If turning the = into an inequality or a congruence is allowed, we can do several things:

(note with the second the movement of the decimal points is arbitrary, anything that would result in a valid expression will do, and also we can move any of the ones to the inequality cross, etc.)

• I love the cheeky third solution. – BreakingMyself Jul 2 '17 at 11:37

One way to solve this question:

Step 1

When faced with a puzzle with multiple solutions I tend to choose the laziest solution. It's rarely what the op imagined but why work hard if you don't have to?

This solution meets these requirements:

• Move three items
• The arrangement makes sense
• Only the basic functions ×÷-+= are allowed
• Lazy

Move three items: 1 stick and 2 stones, rotated

The arrangement makes sense: 22

Only the basic functions ×÷-+= are allowed: used ×-+

Lazy: none of that heavy lifting

• Hmm. I'm not sure if I saw this I would think "makes sense". If anything, it would make me wonder the significance of n. – rybo111 Jul 2 '17 at 16:22
• Don't see any requirement in the puzzle for significance. But if a pun will do I gave you 2 significant digits. – candied_orange Jul 2 '17 at 16:34

I got this one:

1.1 x 11 - 11.1 = 1

Explanation:

Take one stick from the equal sing and move it to the minus, so you get
1.1 x 11 - 11 = 1.1 The equation is true now, but the puzzle requires moving three items.
Take the last stick and stone from the last number and move them to the subtracted number 11, like so:
1.1 x 11 - 11.1 = 1

• I'm just concerned that there wouldn't be enough space between the 11 and the equals to put an extra .1 there. – boboquack Jul 3 '17 at 6:51
• @boboquack true, didn't took that into consideration – Styx Jul 3 '17 at 8:04