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Equals (game) facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

The game Equals was a board game similar to Scrabble, but instead of tiles with letters combined to form words, it used tiles with numbers and basic arithmetic operations to form equations.

The game was sold originally as Zahlenjux by Pelikan in Germany, and in Canada was licensed by Waddingtons.

Objective

Players draw tiles and lay down equations, starting in the center, and continue until no player can lay another tile, the same as in Scrabble. However, there are situations that do not occur in Scrabble, for example while you can extend equations, e.g. by putting 1x4 in front of 4x5=20 to form 1x4 = 4x5 = 20, you can not put 4x5 in front of 4x5=20 to form 4x5 = 4x5 = 20. The immediate right hand side of each part of the sequence must be correct by itself.

A typical first play follows as:

Equals board game

Note the use of the colon tile to represent the division operator, as opposed to the slash or obelus.

Divisor piece from the Equals board game

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