2 of my favorite mathcsticks puzzles. One's a but known, the other is, I think, original. Don't know. Someone else may have done one of the 2nd one's before.
1: You have 4 matches arranged in the shape of a + sign. What is the fewest number of matches you need to move to make this into a square? No breaking/bending of the matches is allowed.
2: You have several matches arranged on a table like this:
What is the fewest number of matches you need to move to make this into a correct
equation? That is, an
equality? No breaking/bending of matches is allowed.
HINT:
If you're having problems, maybe you can approach this from a different point of view...?