burger fun / Four Fours / Solver

Make 96 with four 4s

The classic four fours puzzle: build an expression from exactly four 4s that equals 96. 96 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 96 — the solver checked every possible expression.

Solutions with concatenation and decimals

Concatenation and decimals do not help for 96 either — every combination was checked.

Solutions with square roots, factorials, exponents

  • 4! × 4 × 4 / 4 = 96
  • 4! / 4 × 4 × 4 = 96
  • 4 × 4! × 4 / 4 = 96
  • 4 × 4! + 4 - 4 = 96
  • 4 × 4 × 4! / 4 = 96

…and 750 more at this tier.

755 distinct solutions found in total, after removing trivial rearrangements.

How 96 compares

96 has 755 distinct solutions across all three tiers — #16 most plentiful of the 95 solvable targets. Next door, 95 has 8 solutions and 97 has 8 solutions. The nearest impossible target is 93, 3 away — proven unreachable, not just unsolved.

If 96 went down easily, make 95 with four 4s — 8 solutions, the nearest step up in scarcity.

Make 95 with four 4s · Make 97 with four 4s

The Number Lab

Same idea, different constraints: four 9s, four 4s, or any four digits you like.

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.