A math test recently went viral and is all over the social networks. Its creators say that only one out of every 1,000 people is able to solve it. It seems simple, but the test has an added difficulty: the problem has two possible answers.

Want to give it a try?

Solution

Both 70 and 96 are valid answers. Below are the explanations for each one.

1. We see that 1 + 4 = 5 is correct, but 2 + 5 = 12 is not. To arrive at this answer of 12, the result of the previous sum was also added. We continue and see that 12 + 3 + 6 = 21 and finally, 21 + 8 + 11 = 40.

2. If, instead of adding 1+4, we multiply the numbers and then add them up, we see that the answer is still correct. If we apply this reasoning to the rest, they are also correct, so 2 + (2 x 5) = 12, 3 + (3 x 6) = 21 and finally, 8 + (8 x 11) = 96.

BBVA - Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA published this content on 19 July 2017 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein.
Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 19 July 2017 11:53:10 UTC.

Original documenthttps://www.bbva.com/en/todays-number-mathematics/

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