Puzzles
Using two 3s and two 8s, and any of + − × ÷, can you make exactly 24?
You're dealt four cards: 3, 3, 8 and 8. Using each number exactly once, combined with any mix of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, can you reach a total of exactly 24? It's one of the hardest standard hands in the game, since the obvious combinations all fall short.
Reveal the answer
8 ÷ (3 − 8 ÷ 3) = 24. Since 3 − 8÷3 equals exactly 1/3, dividing 8 by a third gives 24. The 24 Game was created by Shanghai-born engineer Robert Sun and patented through his company Suntex International in 1988; 3-3-8-8 is one of its most notoriously difficult standard card combinations, since it requires nesting a division inside a subtraction rather than combining the numbers in any more obvious order.