As ever, please do NOT post your answers, but do say if you think you have solved the puzzle and how long it took. Solution on Monday.
Can you use the same digit eight times with ‘+’ signs to produce a total of 1000?
I have produced an ebook containing 101 of the previous Friday Puzzles! It is called PUZZLED and is available for the Kindle (UK here and USA here) and on the iBookstore (UK here in the USA here). You can try 101 of the puzzles for free here.
Richard Wiseman 
Yes. Too simple.
Easy if you use 8s
What was that about not giving the answer?
Remember: always ignore any dave’s (including his neighbours and friends)
By the way… This was a bit easy
Its another Roman numeral solution
Since Simon already gave the answer to Richards question you can ignore mine as well.
The only correct answer to the question is: …. yes we can!
Unbelievable, got it on first try!
20 seconds to solve + 10 to verify.
0 sec to solve, three minutes to verify 😉
yep, very easy…
Yes, got it with a bit of mental trial and error, about a minute overall
Got it! I’ll feel really smart now for the rest of the day 😀
Yep. After spending a minute on how to get the last zero. Didn’t really help.
Wow, I got it first time! These usually take me ages (or I don’t get them at all). Either it’s an easier one or I’m finally tuning in!
Look on the bright side. No controversy here about the question being misworded.
Got it!
I got the answer by misreading the question.
Perhaps that was what you were after? A question with a rather simple answer to most people. But it’s actually a pschology test. 😀
Got it – about 1 min. Half logic, half trial & error.
Solved 3 seconds.
A maths question – and I actually got the answer – thanks to inspiration from a talk by maths genius Arthur Benjamin yesterday at The Festival of Magic in London
Unlike everyone above, I normally get them but am stuck.
I can however do 1000 with the same digit nine times and the + symbol. No other symbols.
We are saying no other symbols allowed I presume
?
I had assumed no other symbols too, but like you I used configurations that need no other symbols and I also got 1000 with nine digits.
I spent 20 minutes trying to figure it out before I realized that my first guess had been right and I just somehow messed up the adding in checking myself.
Are we required to use a base 10 system?
I don’t see any informatio/clues leading us towards another base system, and it works perfectly fine in decimal. Of course, “base 10” can be used to refer to any base unit as the base number itself is “10” in its own base! (eg in binary, “10” represents “two” but in hexadecimal, “10” is sixteen etc…)
@safc4ever…
“the same digit” not the same number…
Could you please give your solutions for the bases, oct and hex on monday..
Sincerely…
There are only 10 types of people…
i got this answer almost instantly. still working on the other(s?).
got it!
The only times recently,past month maybe-don’t like counting-I got it so quickly I could say quickly(not brag,hate braggarts) like some, something to do with lions 1st time- it was not a math puzzle, but others gave away answers so they were forbidden until you started math problems again. Other times ,been too tired. One actually bragged about his little boy getting one right in third of a second-bit much,must be some watch-no-don’t write me if watches made that way exist;they must,please-don’t care! Admire those who get answers quickly and refrain from statements like[actual statement] “got it before I finished reading question”.Even if true ,I’d never trumpet that-bad form to me. Please no angry answers as I’m ill & maybe too testy-sorry, everyone.
Had to ask,for husband too,are you Gabriel Knight fan?-not my business, couldn’t resist-good wishes.
Last reply meant for schattenjager only-sorry don’t know how to cancel replies like long dispeptic one, sorry.
This was a 5 minute one 😉
I can do it 2 ways using 2 different digits!
dito!
Got it after a couple of minutes, a bit of trial and error, should have worked out quicker really.
I can’t believe people are already giving the answer away in the comments again. Why can’t people grow up?
Got it in about 3 minutes, with some trial and error and a crayon!
I remember the answer from last time you asked this question.
Got it, wicked easy.
It took a couple of mins to get the satisfaction of a puzzle solved, and I can also (lamely)
get 1000 in 13 digits with no symbols
I can get it in 4 digits without symbols: 1000
Well, I can get 1000 in four digits, with no symbols
(lamely) the same digit 13 times and no symbols…….
If I hadn’t been able to get it, would ‘no’ have been accepted as a correct answer?
oops, that is exactly what you said, I’m not sure what I was thinking but for some reason I misread your comment. Sorry
For a thicko like me, I’m amazed it was so easy 🙂
Is using base 126 numbers cheating?
Can get it without using the + sign
I can use one digit nine times with “+” signs to produce a total of 1000.
“Same digit” implies a singular digit used repeatedly eight times – “10” is two digits.
Interesting that in using quotation marks around a number, such as “10” above, this application presents the second quotes mark as the symbol for “inches.”
Wrote a script in VBA to solve it for me. Pretty straight forward
If you wrote a script in VBA to solve it, I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that you haven’t actually solved it
My answer is yes
Oh, that’s a nice sort of straightforward but clever one, Richard, thanks for that: sort of a gentle workout for the brain. Took about a minute or so to get it and double-check it. Thanks for that one 🙂
Got it at last. Nice one.
Hmmm, I can think of two relatively independent solutions (but with the same basic idea)
I am not sure how long it took me, but following the normal standard here, I’ll just say it took me 2 seconds
2 mins to solve. pretty easy
Solved in a couple minutes (including verification) in both decimal and binary systems
About 2 minutes 🙂
Took me ages, because I didn’t read the puzzle carefully and tried to solve it with 10 digits. When I reread and used 8 digits, it was a breeze 🙂
Seems suspiciously simple, I wonder if tehre is some kind of catch. If not i solved it on the first guess.
When I was forced to go to church, I used to do stuff like that for many different challenges – 4 numbers, one through 100, five numbers etc.