How can we put any mathematical sign (addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division) between five $5$s to get $66$?
$$55555\;=\;66$$
How can we put any mathematical sign (addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division) between five $5$s to get $66$?
$$55555\;=\;66$$
On
If only addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division are allowed (with no use of parenthesis) only the following positive integers can be formed:
3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 25, 29, 30, 31, 40, 45, 55, 100, 115, 124, 125, 126, 135, 150, 620, 630, 3125
Note that the list does not include 66.
If concatenation is allowed (but parenthesis are still disallowed) we can get the additional positive integers:
1, 11, 12, 35, 36, 44, 49, 50, 51, 59, 60, 61, 66, 70, 75, 85, 105, 106, 116, 180, 220, 250, 265, 274, 275, 276, 285, 300, 330, 500, 530, 545, 554, 555, 556, 565, 580, 605, 610, 1111, 1370, 1380, 2770, 2780, 3020, 3030, 5550, 5560, 6875, 13875, 15125, 27775, 30525, 55555
On
As you can check with a few lines of Python, there is no way to achieve this;
ops = ['+', '-', '*', '/']
results = [eval('5' + a + '5' + b + '5' + c + '5' + d + '5')
for (a, b, c, d) in itertools.product(ops, repeat=4)]
66 in results # False
Ordered by size, the possible results are -620, -125, -124, -115, -100, -45, -30, -29, -24.8, -21, -20, -19, -15, -14, -10, -9.8, -6, -5, -4.96, -4, -3, -0.8, -0.2, 0.008, 0.2, 0.8, 1.2, 3, 4, 4.96, 5, 5.04, 6, 7, 9.8, 10, 10.2, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 24.8, 25, 25.2, 29, 30, 31, 40, 45, 55, 100, 115, 124, 125, 126, 135, 150, 620, 630, and 3125.
$$5/5 + 5\cdot 5/5 = 6 + [6-6] / [6 \cdot 6 \cdot 6]$$