This August 27th, challenge yourself with a handwritten math equation from the file image_27.png that has been causing a massive debate on social media! It comes with a clear warning right at the top: “Don’t Answer Too Fast!” It looks exactly like a problem you would have easily solved in grade school, but it is tricking a surprising number of people today.
The image asks you to solve: 1 + 2 × 0 + 3.
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 1 and 2 to get 3, then multiply by 0 to get 0, and add the final 3 to end up with a completely incorrect 3! That × 0 in the middle 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.
So, your very first step is to tackle the multiplication section. 2 × 0 simply gives you 0.
When you drop that zero back into the problem, the equation becomes incredibly easy: 1 + 0 + 3.
Now you can just add the numbers together from left to right. 1 plus 0 is still 1, and adding the final 3 brings you directly to your solution.
Answer: 4.
