This handwritten math equation has been causing a massive debate on social media! It looks exactly like a problem you would have easily solved in grade school, but it is tricking a surprising number of adults today.
The image asks you to solve: 8 + 8 ÷ 1 × 0.
What makes this puzzle so tricky is our natural instinct to read and calculate straight from left to right. If you do that, you might add 8 and 8 to get 16, divide by 1 to get 16, and then multiply by 0 to end up with a completely incorrect 0! That × 0 at the end of the problem is a classic trap.
To get the right answer, you have to remember the golden rule of math: the order of operations. This rule states that multiplication and division must always be completed before addition and subtraction, and they carry the same weight, meaning they must be solved from left to right.
So, your very first step is to tackle the division section. 8 ÷ 1 simply gives you 8.
When you drop that 8 back into the problem, the equation becomes: 8 + 8 × 0.
Next, you must tackle the multiplication. 8 × 0 gives you 0.
Now you can just add the remaining numbers together. 8 plus 0 brings you directly to your solution.
Answer: 8.
