The image challenges readers with 170 + 20 × 0 + 4 = ? and warns that the answer is not 174.
The correct answer
174. Despite the warning in the image, 174 really is mathematically correct. Following the standard order of operations, 20 × 0 = 0, and then 170 + 0 + 4 = 174.
Sometimes a puzzle’s headline is itself the trick. The arithmetic rules still decide the answer, not the claim printed above the equation.


