Mathematical Puzzle: Make 24

This problem was suggested by Eva Börgens in 2002. Eva attended the 7th form of Augustinerschule Friedberg, then.

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Get solution for specific Make 24 Puzzle

MAKE 24 is a simple game. Four figures in the range of the natural numbers 1 to 9 are chosen randomly. Your task is to combine them in order to obtain the result 24 - but you may only use the four basic arithmetical operations and brackets.

Example: 6, 3, 6, 4 are the four numbers given.
Then 6 · 6 - 4 · 3 = 24 (you may find other solutions).

Now try:

6, 8, 9, 9

1, 3, 4, 6

3, 3, 7, 7

No ploys! Not allowed are factorials, powers, roots etc. Furthermore, you must not combine two or three of the four numbers to a two- resp. three-digit number (e.g., with 1, 3, 4, 8 given, 38 - 14 = 24 is no correct solution).

Note: There are 495 different games, of which 404 are solvable. The game with the most solutions is 1,7,8,9 which has 15 solutions.