More Matchstick Math

RAY: Go out and get yourself 16 matchsticks. You're going to use the matchsticks to make the following Roman numeral sequence. One, then two matchsticks to make a plus sign. Plus Roman numeral two. Plus Roman numeral three. Plus Roman numeral four, which is not "IV," but, in this case, "IIII."

[For the Car Talk Puzzler Psychic Friends Network, that equation would be:

I + II + III + IIII ]

If you add this up, one plus two plus three plus four, it adds up to 10.

The question is, can you move one matchstick, without removing it, still using them all -- and make that equal to four?

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

The Chemistry Test

RAY: I shamelessly stole this from Joseph Rayle from Durham, North Carolina.

Two undergraduate chemistry students at a major university had a highly successful semester in an introductory chemistry class. So their confidence is high, so high in fact that they decide to blow off their reading period, and they go to a fraternity party in a town quite a distance away and they have a pretty good time. So good in fact that they don't make it back in time for their final exam.

In a panic, however, they devise a plan. They agreed to tell the professor that they had a flat tire and this prevented their returning in time to take the exam. They pleaded with him, "Let us take the exam, please, this could ruin us, we promise nothing like this will ever happen again." The professor agrees and tells them to return the next morning. The two return the following morning, and the professor gives them their exam but decides he isn't going to hang around. He has them leave their books and backpacks in the office and sends them to different rooms to take their exams. The test consists of one five-point question - some molarity problem - and each, smiling confidently, answers the question. Then they turn the page, and the next question is a ninety-five-point question.

And our question is: What is the question?