Challenge yourself with a handwritten math equation from the file image_26.png that has been causing a massive debate on social media! It comes with a quick prompt right at the top: “Quick one! Can you solve this?” 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: 3 + 3 × 0 + 1.
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 3 and 3 to get 6, then multiply by 0 to get 0, and add the final 1 to end up with a completely incorrect 1! 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. 3 × 0 simply gives you 0.
When you drop that zero back into the problem, the equation becomes incredibly easy: 3 + 0 + 1.
Now you can just add the numbers together from left to right. 3 plus 0 is still 3, and adding the final 1 brings you directly to your solution.
Answer: 4.
