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You can use addition, multiplication, subtraction, and division as many times as you want but can only use the numbers one time each.

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  • $\begingroup$ Welcome to Puzzling! FYI, this site has a rule that any puzzle question must specify where it came from. Please could you edit your post to clarify where it came from, as specifically as you can? If you made the puzzle yourself, that's fine. If your source for the puzzle also contains the solution, then you can edit in the link after it's solved, to avoid spoilers. For basic info about how this site works, you can also check out our tour. $\endgroup$ Commented yesterday
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    $\begingroup$ Also, to confirm: no other operations are allowed, right? No use of concatenation, decimal point, etc.? How about parentheses? May the numbers be reordered? $\endgroup$ Commented yesterday
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    $\begingroup$ Technically, you might like to say that we need to use each number exactly once, since otherwise this is somewhat trivial... $\endgroup$ Commented yesterday

7 Answers 7

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One possibility with the numbers in the given order is:

$(2+2-3) \times 5 \ =$

$1 \times 5 \ =$

$5$

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Also a solution:

$(2+3+5)/2 = 10/2 =5$

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  • $\begingroup$ $+1 \ $ Welcome to PSE (Puzzling Stack Exchange)! $\endgroup$ Commented yesterday
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Another solution preserving the order of the numbers.

(2-2)×3 + 5

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Another one preserving the order:

2×(2+3)-5

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Another solution preserving order:

((2x2)-3)x5

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Strictly to the spec, without parentheses:

$2 \times 5 - 2 - 3 = 10 - 2 - 3 = 5$

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Good-looking answer (if allowed) may be:

$\dfrac{5!}{2!\cdot2!\cdot3!}=5$

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    $\begingroup$ But factorial isn't allowed. There has been a meta discussion about giving romantic answers that don't answer the question. $\endgroup$ Commented yesterday
  • $\begingroup$ @WeatherVane As bobble commented, this post doesn’t have any restriction of other operations. Generally these type of puzzles give some restriction like: “No other operations allowed.” The purpose of my answer was to share some possible answers, and this was what I felt good-looking. $\endgroup$ Commented yesterday
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    $\begingroup$ @RDK but it has an implicit restriction, because a list of allowed operations is provided. If such a list exists, it makes sense to assume that the intent is for only that list to be allowed. I was just double-checking the clear intent. $\endgroup$ Commented yesterday
  • $\begingroup$ @bobble I don’t get the downvotes. This post isn’t naturally that strict post, and I mentioned if allowed to consider the case if it is not allowed. This was just an opinion which seems beautiful for me. $\endgroup$ Commented yesterday
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    $\begingroup$ So why did they bother mentioning those four operators? And they don't say "you may not use any other digits." $\endgroup$ Commented yesterday

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