Viral Math Problem: The internet has a knack of throwing seemingly easy, but intriguing challenges every once in a while. Whether it is the “what colour is the dress — blue black or white gold?” or “what do you hear in the audio — Yanny or Laurel?” there have been some absolute brain teasers that have riddled us.
The latest question that seems to have found support in two opposing schools of thought on Twitter is the seemingly innocuous arithmetic question — “6÷2(1+2) =?”
There are basically two schools of thought — both involving some form of BoDMAS rule calculation, which involves sequentially solving —
step 1) Bracket,
step 2) Of (to the power of, or indices),
step 3) Division,
step 4) Multiplication,
step 5) Addition, and lastly,
step 6) Subtraction)
Answer 1:: The one common answer that one can find on the thread is “1”. They arrive at one as the answer by solving inside the brackets first —
6÷2(1+2) = ?
step 1: solve inside the brackets (1+2) = 3, then multiply;
step 2: 2(3) or (2×3) = 6; then divide the numerator and denominator to get one as the answer;
step 3: 6÷6 = 1.
Answer 2:: Now, the other common answer one sees in the thread is ‘9’.
6÷2(1+2) = ?
step 1: solve inside the brackets (1+2) = 3; then the calculation looks like 6÷2×3; they then do the division,
step 2: 6÷2 = 3; followed by multiplying the 3 received through division with 3,
step 3: 3×3 = 9.
So, 1 or 9? What’s your answer to the arithmetic question that has divided Twitter?