Match Stick Math
RAY: Here's the answer moving a match stick, one match stick. And that is, you take the match stick from the equal sign.
TOM: Yeah, yeah.
RAY: And you bring it over to where the minus sign is and you make one equal to three, now minus two.
TOM: Sure, that's good.
RAY: OK? Or, you move no sticks and you walk around to the other side of the table. You walk around 180 degrees --
TOM: Right.
RAY: -- and look at it from the other side of the table --
TOM: Yeah.
RAY: -- assuming you had them set up on a table. And you can look at it from the other side --
TOM: Yeah.
RAY: -- in which case you need to move nothing.
TOM: Well then, that's the right answer.
RAY: And it says two equals three minus one.
TOM: Well, the answer is what's the least number of --
RAY: Match stick movements.
TOM: Isn't zero leaster than one?
RAY: Yeah.
TOM: There aren't two answers. There's one answer.
RAY: OK.
TOM: The answer is zero.
RAY: In which case I already used it.
TOM: I know you did.
RAY: But it was a long time ago and everyone forgets. Anyway, do we have a legitimate winner?
TOM: Yes, we do. The winner is Richard King from Sunnyvale, California.[ Car Talk Puzzler ]
