Out of the box thinking required

I heard this puzzler Saturday on Car Talk. Try it. Look at the following equation. Obviously, something's wrong.

76 = 24

Imagine that each digit is on a separate piece of paper - the 7, the 6, the 2, and the 4 are all on little pieces of paper. Therefore, you can rotate these digits if you wish. Also, the digits do not have to remain in a perfectly straight line. The only thing that you cannot change is the equals sign. You can't change it to a plus, or a does not equal, and you can't rotate it to make an 11. It must remain an equals sign.

Can you arrange everything so as to produce a valid equation?

Comments

49 = 7squared

[Jeffrey Field]

(Trumpet call!)

That's right!

[Two Dishes]

I hope Car Talk calls you to say thanks. Twice I mentioned a show in my town from NPR WNYC and an intern tracked me down to add comments, once to correct me on something. Interns with time on their hands to scan blogs.

[Jeff Field]

I wish I had some time on my hands.

I enjoy Car Talk. But, for some reason, the two brothers refused to run my poem. I din't mind the refusal. I mind that no one (interns included) ever bothered to contact me one way or the other.

You can read the poem here. http://consilience.typepad.com/teachers_lounge/2004/09/creative_writin_1.html