Henry Ernest Dudeney/Modern Puzzles/215 - An Ingenious Match Puzzle/Solution

Modern Puzzles by Henry Ernest Dudeney: $215$

An Ingenious Match Puzzle

Place $6$ matches as shown, and then shift just one match without touching the others so that the new arrangement shall represent a fraction equal to $1$.

The match forming the horizontal fraction bar must not be the one moved.

Solution

The dotted line is where the match was moved from, and the red line is where it was moved to.

That is, $\dfrac 1 {\sqrt 1}$ which is of course $1$.

Sources

• 1926: Henry Ernest Dudeney: Modern Puzzles ... (previous) ... (next): Solutions: $215$. -- An Ingenious Match Puzzle
• 1968: Henry Ernest Dudeney: 536 Puzzles & Curious Problems ... (previous) ... (next): Answers: $498$. An Ingenious Match Puzzle