In normal math problems, teachers give you a formula and you have to find the answer. But in this game, you are given the numbers, and you have to figure out how to make them into an equation. If it gives you the numbers: 4 5 3 3 3 7 you might make this: 4 x 5 = 3 x 3 x 3 - 7 In this game, calculations always happen in left-to-right order. This means that 3 + 4 x 5 is 35, because we do 3+4 first and then multiply that result by 5. (In the Real World, you would always do multiplications before additions, so 3 + 4 x 5 would give you 23!) One of the operators needs explanation. The colon ":" puts the numbers side-by-side to make a bigger number. So 3:7 really means 37. Like everything else, this happens in left-to-right order, so 2+1:5 equals 35. To play, just change each plus sign to the operation you want by clicking on it and choosing from the pop-up list. There has to be at least one equals-sign in the equation. When you are ready, click on "Check it!" and the program will check if your answer is correct. If you get it wrong, you can keep trying, or you can ask the program to solve it. There is guaranteed to be a correct answer, because the program checks before giving you the problem, and if there is no solution it picks a different one. (Before making it do that, I tried about a hundred problems, and found only one that had no solution: 8 2 5 8 2 0) Oh yeah, you can put in your own numbers by typing 'n'.
For years now, I have played this game in my head as a way of helping me to remember a number. For instance, if I needed to remember that the number of some street address was 1130, I might get the answer 1 - 1 = 3 x 0. After paying so much attention to it, I will remember it better. In case you were not sure, everyone loves pizza.
