To make the digit 7, three sticks are needed.

Write or make the number 5108. How many sticks are required?

Question

To make the digit 7, three sticks are needed. Write or make the number 5108. How many sticks are required?

Homi · Accepted Answer

Understand the Question

In a standard digital or matchstick representation, each digit is formed using a specific number of line segments (sticks).
To find the total number of sticks required to form the four-digit number $5108$ , count the number of sticks needed for each individual digit ( $5$ , $1$ , $0$ , and $8$ ) and find their sum.

Step 1 · Find Sticks Required for Each Digit

Diagram 1

The number of sticks required to form each digit (0 to 9):

Step 2 · Calculate Total Sticks for 5108

Count the sticks needed for each digit in $5108$ :

\begin{aligned} \text{Total sticks} &= 5 + 2 + 6 + 7 \\ &= 20 \end{aligned}

Answer

$20$ sticks

Common Mistakes

Zero-Value Error: Assuming digit $0$ takes $0$ sticks because its numerical value is zero. A digital $0$ forms an outer loop requiring $6$ sticks.
Digit 1 Miscount: Counting digit $1$ as $1$ stick instead of the $2$ vertical segments required in standard digital display format.

Question 4