burger fun / Four Fours / Solver
Make 74 with four 4s
The classic four fours puzzle: build an expression from exactly four 4s that equals 74. 74 cannot be made with + - × ÷, concatenation, or decimals (the solver checked every expression) — solutions need square roots, factorials, or exponents.
Solutions using only + - × ÷
No expression made of four plain 4s and + - × ÷ reaches 74 — the solver checked every possible expression.
Solutions with concatenation and decimals
Concatenation and decimals do not help for 74 either — every combination was checked.
Solutions with square roots, factorials, exponents
(4 + 4!) / .4 + 4 = 74(4! - 4) / .4 + 4! = 744! - (4 - 4!) / .4 = 744 × 4! + sqrt(4) - 4! = 744 × 4! - 4! + sqrt(4) = 74
…and 5 more at this tier.
10 distinct solutions found in total, after removing trivial rearrangements.
How 74 compares
74 has 10 distinct solutions across all three tiers — #22 scarcest of the 95 solvable targets. Next door, 73 has none at all and 75 has 31 solutions. The nearest impossible target is 73, right next door — proven unreachable, not just unsolved.
If 74 went down easily, make 71 with four 4s — 3 solutions, the nearest step up in scarcity.
Make 73 with four 4s · Make 75 with four 4s
The Number Lab
Same idea, different constraints: four 9s, four 4s, or any four digits you like.
- Four Nines — the daily puzzle
- Four Nines solver — every target, solved
- Four Fours — the 1881 original
- Four Fours solver — including the impossible five
- Make 24 solver — any four digits
- Today's 24 — one new hand a day
Got what you came for?
Stay for something you did not search for.
- Four Nines — the daily sibling: four 9s, one target, new at midnight
- The Reflex Lab — nine ways to measure your hands and memory, none of them polite about it
- hand me something weird — a random pick from the directory. Could be the horse.
Read up on the 1881 original, pick another number in the solver, or find more free math games.