Given these four equations/inequalities:
1x=2 2x=4 3x=3 4x>8 What is x?
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4 Answers
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4 The answer is:
The "<" symbol
Why?
In some programming languages, "<=" means "is less than or equal to", and "<>" means "is not equal to".
- 7
- 5$\begingroup$ And <> is not necessarily the same as !=. Some objects it doesn't make sense to compare < or >. $\endgroup$qwr– qwr2020-07-25 22:11:15 +00:00Commented Jul 25, 2020 at 22:11
- $\begingroup$ Precisely correct! $\endgroup$Ed Marty– Ed Marty2020-07-25 23:16:27 +00:00Commented Jul 25, 2020 at 23:16
- 1$\begingroup$ Hah. And here I though it was about
xbeing another representation of><in a smaller print. $\endgroup$ChatterOne– ChatterOne2020-07-27 10:31:26 +00:00Commented Jul 27, 2020 at 10:31
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2 Answer: x is
a variable (as in programming)
That's because
the given "equations/inequalities" are in fact (some dialect of) BASIC code, so 1,2,3,4 at the beginning of the each line are just labels/line numbers. So, it's a perfectly valid program consisting of 3 assignments (lines 1-3) to the same variable
xand 1 comparison in line 4 (the result of which is not assigned to any variable). Better formatting and comments:1 x = 2 'assign 2 tox(creating a new variable, declaration is not required in BASIC) 2 x = 4 'assign 4 tox3 x = 3 'assign 3 tox4 x > 8 'comparexwith 8, returning false (0)
P.S.
If
xis required to be a number, my answer isx = 3(this will be the value ofxafter running this code).
- 4$\begingroup$ Very clever! Headed in the right direction, but not what I was going for. Also, your P.S. is not necessary, because rot13(k vf abg n ahzore) $\endgroup$Ed Marty– Ed Marty2020-07-25 07:55:49 +00:00Commented Jul 25, 2020 at 7:55
- 1$\begingroup$ rot13(vs vg jnf onfvp gurer jbhyq unir orra fcnprf orgjrra gur ynoryf/yvar ahzoref naq gur pbzznaqf) $\endgroup$melfnt– melfnt2020-07-25 10:56:27 +00:00Commented Jul 25, 2020 at 10:56
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3 X could be operator (IS NOT)
! Because
1x=2 2x=4 3x=3 4x>8 are always either true or false conditions in any programming language.
1!=2 //Always True 2!=4 //Always True 3!=3 //Always False 4!>8 //Always True 
- 1$\begingroup$ Huh? What language supports !> ? $\endgroup$Loren Pechtel– Loren Pechtel2020-07-28 00:14:11 +00:00Commented Jul 28, 2020 at 0:14
- $\begingroup$ @LorenPechtel You are right .. thank you for ponting out mistake. $\endgroup$Nikhil Sharma– Nikhil Sharma2020-07-28 02:19:55 +00:00Commented Jul 28, 2020 at 2:19
- 3$\begingroup$ @LorenPechtel T-SQL $\endgroup$user-781943– user-7819432020-07-28 08:13:08 +00:00Commented Jul 28, 2020 at 8:13
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3 x could be:
(π/2)!
where the
! is a not operator
- $\begingroup$ ! seems more like a factorial in the last context at least. $\endgroup$Ed Marty– Ed Marty2020-07-26 16:03:43 +00:00Commented Jul 26, 2020 at 16:03
- $\begingroup$ Seconded--! as negation precedes, not follows. Trailing it only means factorial. $\endgroup$Loren Pechtel– Loren Pechtel2020-07-28 00:15:01 +00:00Commented Jul 28, 2020 at 0:15
- $\begingroup$ @LorenPechtel In the context, the first line would be read 1(p/2)!=2 where "!=" means "not equals". $\endgroup$user-781943– user-7819432020-07-28 08:10:30 +00:00Commented Jul 28, 2020 at 8:10