Three primary school maths questions stump adults

People from around the world have been left scratching their heads over three ‘simple’ primary school maths questions. 

The questions have been collated by collated by Chris Hogbin, education leader at mathematical software solutions company, 3P Learning, from New South Wales.  

But despite being geared towards children, the problems are trickier than they initially appear. 

Try your hand at the questions below and scroll down to check the answers and see how you fared.  

Q.  8+2×4÷2

While the first equation reads ‘8+2×4÷2’, mathematicians have said the key to solving it is to read it as ‘8 + ((2 x 4) / 2)’. 

The wrong answer will be reached if you mix up the order of operation, which is the method used to solve mathematical equations.

Puzzlers can remember the order needed to solve the solution by learning three simple methods:  PEMDAS, BEDMAS and BODMAS.

These methods are conventional ways in to solve problems and must be followed from left to right.

BODMAS stands for brackets, order, division, multiplication, addition and subtraction.

PEMDAS, on the other hand, stands for parenthesis, exponents, multiplication, division, addition and subtraction. It is often expanded to the phrase, ‘Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally’.

In this case, ‘exponents’ is the same as ‘order’. 

BEDMAS changes the ‘P’ for ‘B’, which stands for brackets and means the same thing.

The interchanging of the D and M doesn’t hold any actual value in the order of operation. 

An important note in the order of operation – and a major reason why so many arrive at the wrong answer – is that you must do either multiplication and division followed by addition and subtraction based off which occurs first from left to right.

So in all three orders of operation, multiplication has the same precedence as division while subtraction has the same as addition. 

2. How many triangles do you see?

The second problem shows a photo of a triangle segmented by lines and asks puzzlers to identify how many triangles you can see in total.

Most see four triangles, while others see 12 and a few six, 16, 18 and 22.

But can you figure out the correct answer? Scroll to the bottom to find out.  

3. How many pieces of fruit are you left with? 

The third question involves four simple addition problems where numbers are represented by types of fruit, with numeric values hidden.

The answers to the first three equations have been given, which allows you to work backwards to reveal the numeric value of each fruit: apples, bananas and cherries.

Three apples equal 60, while two bananas plus one cherry equal 20.

One apple and two bananas equal 38. 

These answers must then be used to solve the fourth and final equation, which reads: apple + banana + cherry = ? 

World Maths Day will kick off on 5 May and run for 48 hours. You can register now at www.worldmathsday.com