A Variation of the Four Fours Problem

I found a question on Mathstodon the other day, posed by David Radcliffe. Using the numbers 4, 4, 4, 4, 1, 1 and only the basic arithmetic operators, obtain the number 42. It seemed deceptively simple, and so I attempted to solve it. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t. So either I misunderstood what tools were available to me (as in, could I have used other operators) or I’m being incredibly myopic and just looking past an obvious answer. I work out a couple of approaches in this talk before giving up.

Citation

@online{kilaru2023fourfours,
  title  = {A Variation of the Four Fours Problem},
  author = {Yasaswi Sri Chandra Gandhi Kilaru},
  year   = 2023,
  month  = {Sep},
  url    = {https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um3M8S3i8hI},
}