Henry Ernest Dudeney/Modern Puzzles/216 - Fifty-Seven to Nothing/Solution 1

Modern Puzzles by Henry Ernest Dudeney: $216$

Fifty-Seven to Nothing

Place $6$ matches as shown, so as to represent the number $57$ in Roman numerals.

Remove and replace any $2$ of them (without disturbing the others) to make an expression representing zero ($0$).

There are two completely different solutions.

Solution

The dotted lines are where the matches were moved from, and the red lines are where they were moved to.

That is: $\sqrt 1 - 1$ which is of course $0$.

Sources

• 1926: Henry Ernest Dudeney: Modern Puzzles ... (previous) ... (next): Solutions: $216$. -- Fifty-Seven to Nothing
• 1968: Henry Ernest Dudeney: 536 Puzzles & Curious Problems ... (previous) ... (next): Answers: $499$. Fifty-Seven to Nothing