Short but impossible math problem

Question

Given these four equations/inequalities:

1x=2
2x=4
3x=3
4x>8

What is x?

score 46 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 25 '20 at 11:03

46

The answer is:

The "<" symbol

Why?

In some programming languages, "<=" means "is less than or equal to", and "<>" means "is not equal to".

answered Jul 25 '20 at 11:03

Kramii

877
6
6

7

From here: "Just for trivia, <> was chosen in some languages because it can be interpreted as "less than or greater than", or in other words, not equal." (The longer you live ...) – tomd Jul 25 '20 at 21:30
5

And <> is not necessarily the same as !=. Some objects it doesn't make sense to compare < or >. – qwr Jul 25 '20 at 22:11
Precisely correct! – Ed Marty Jul 25 '20 at 23:16
1

Hah. And here I though it was about x being another representation of >< in a smaller print. – ChatterOne Jul 27 '20 at 10:31

score 16 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 25 '20 at 07:42

Answer: x is

a variable (as in programming)

That's because

the given "equations/inequalities" are in fact (some dialect of) BASIC code, so 1,2,3,4 at the beginning of the each line are just labels/line numbers. So, it's a perfectly valid program consisting of 3 assignments (lines 1-3) to the same variable x and 1 comparison in line 4 (the result of which is not assigned to any variable). Better formatting and comments:
 1 x = 2 'assign 2 to x (creating a new variable, declaration is not required in BASIC)
 2 x = 4 'assign 4 to x
 3 x = 3 'assign 3 to x
 4 x > 8 'compare x with 8, returning false (0)
 

P.S.

If x is required to be a number, my answer is x = 3 (this will be the value of x after running this code).

Very clever! Headed in the right direction, but not what I was going for. Also, your P.S. is not necessary, because rot13(k vf abg n ahzore) — Ed Marty, Jul 25 '20 at 07:55
rot13(vs vg jnf onfvp gurer jbhyq unir orra fcnprf orgjrra gur ynoryf/yvar ahzoref naq gur pbzznaqf) — melfnt, Jul 25 '20 at 10:56

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 27 '20 at 11:36

4

X could be operator (IS NOT)

Because

1x=2
2x=4
3x=3
4x>8

are always either true or false conditions in any programming language.

1!=2    //Always True
2!=4    //Always True
3!=3    //Always False
4!>8    //Always True

answered Jul 27 '20 at 11:36

Nikhil Sharma

141
1

1

Huh? What language supports !> ? – Loren Pechtel Jul 28 '20 at 00:14
@LorenPechtel You are right .. thank you for ponting out mistake. – Nikhil Sharma Jul 28 '20 at 02:19
3

@LorenPechtel T-SQL – user-781943 Jul 28 '20 at 08:13

score 2 · Answer 4 · edited Jul 26 '20 at 12:17

2

x could be:

(π/2)!

where the

! is a not operator

edited Jul 26 '20 at 12:17

Beastly Gerbil

58,036
8
166
314

answered Jul 26 '20 at 06:24

ǝǝʞ

21
1

! seems more like a factorial in the last context at least. – Ed Marty Jul 26 '20 at 16:03
Seconded--! as negation precedes, not follows. Trailing it only means factorial. – Loren Pechtel Jul 28 '20 at 00:15
@LorenPechtel In the context, the first line would be read 1(p/2)!=2 where "!=" means "not equals". – user-781943 Jul 28 '20 at 08:10

Short but impossible math problem

4 Answers4