The answer is five (5). The trick is on the rules which indicate not to break or bend, but it does not read anything about rearranging the letters. Use this format to use five. Notice the T under the A
I say 7 becouse if I lay the A fist stick across the F at the rigth angle and again`The other half `of A at the Left `angle across the F- I use the F to get the `F and /\ in middle of F , as I did not cut of bend nothing about over laping....now make t= 7 `sticks
If the letters are separated it takes 8; but if you are creative you can produce the necessary letters connected with 7,6,5 and even 4 toothpicks. If this question is being posed for an online IQ quiz, I believe the correct answer is 5 but the result is sort of bogus
}The debate is whether or not the toothpicks can be broken, bent or combined. Since my search was related to a question where you cannot break or bend, I will post the answer for combining. If you lay toothpicks of the same length in an attempt to spell the word fat / FAT you will find you can actually spell the word with 6 toothpicks IF you change the upper case T to t otherwise it will take 7. ______ | | / \ | |_____/__\___ |____ | / \ | | / \ | | / \ | / \ | |
I am able to spell it with 5 Toothpicks. I use one for the base of the 'F' and the 2nd for the top bar of the F. 3rd for the middle bar of the F. You can make your A out of the F, and by adding the 4th and 5th toothpicks, you can finish the A and form your T.
Use 3 to spell the letter "A", allowing the middle TP to cross over the right TP. So far, you have spelled "A" and "T", because the the top of the "T" is formed by the middle TP, and the bottom of the "T" is formed by the lower half of the right TP. To make the "F", add a 4th TP to the top of the A. The 4th TP will be the top cross of the "F", the middle TP (that crosses the "A") will be the lower cross of the "F", and the left TP of the "A" will be the vertical line of the "F".
Its 8 if you do it with space between the letters, however if you use one toothpick to make the second dash on the F and then cross the A and lower the T then its 6.
Technically, the answer isn't 8 because the crossbar of the A would form an equilateral triangle when positioned below, otherwise the end of the toothpick would extend beyond the other two if placed higher. You would need 2 additional toothpicks to make the A. The answer is 10.
