## Saturday, April 23, 2016

### 2 answers to a Mathematics question leave many dumbfounded

By stephluo@sph.com.sg, SPH DIGITAL NEWS, Friday, 22 April 2016

PHOTO: What does 8+11 equal to?
Photo: Randall Jones' Facebook on Monday

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2Z6z8MGAEWM/VxrtnVfZ3yI/AAAAAAAAjqc/XF2VijA-PKQ1JqvItgnnD7-XYSC9od0XACLcB/s1600/mathsqtn1200_fb.jpg
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What does 8+11 equal to?

Without thinking too hard, almost everyone can give a straightforward answer that it is 19, right? Well, not quite.

A mathematics question recently posted on Facebook has left many confused.

The post by Randall Jones on Monday (April 18) shows four sets of equations, with the first being "1+4=5" and the last being "8+11=?".

Can you solve the mathematics question below?

PHOTO: So what is your answer? How many times did you have to try? How long did you take to solve it?
Picture posted by Photo Source: Shutterstock, Wikimedia Commons, The New Paper, published on 23 February 2016

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Apparently, there are two methods to solving this question.
Firstly, if you interpret the equations and see them as a run-on from the previous, the sum on the right is added to the equation in the next line.

1+4=5
5+2+5=12
12+3+6=21

Using this method, 21+8+11 would equal 40.

And what about the other method?

Simply use multiplication. For every line, if you multiply the second number by the first number before adding the two, you will notice a pattern.

1+(4×1)=5
2+(5×2)=12
3+(6×3)=21

Using this method, the answer to 8+(8×11) is 96.

Jones' post has garnered one million comments. It has also sparked over 138,000 reactions and shared almost 45,000 times.

As to which is the correct answer, it was a general consensus by commenters that both 40 and 96 are accurate.

PHOTO: As to which is the correct answer, it was a general consensus by commenters that both 40 and 96 are accurate.
There is an incredible amount of stress involved for parents, teachers, administrators, politicians, and of course students.
Picture posted by ATR Adventures on Friday, 10 April 2015
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If questions on Cheryl's birthday (http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapore/maths-question-catches-worlds-attention) and the weight of eight $1 coins from last year's Primary School Leaving Examination didn't impress you, we hope this might challenge your minds. For the question on Cheryl's birthday, 10 dates were given and students were asked to figure out the birthday of a girl named Cheryl using limited information. It was set by the Singapore and Asian Schools Math Olympiads for a competition for 15-year-olds here. A Primary School Leaving Examination mathematics question last year (http://news.asiaone.com/news/education/psle-coin-question-tests-ability-estimate-mass) also left many parents worried about the fairness of the question to 12-year-olds. According to the Ministry of Education and Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board, the question on the weight of eight$1 Singapore coins was set to assess candidates' ability to estimate the mass of common objects.

And by the way, the question by Jones can be solved in ten minutes. Proven and tested. The explanation took way longer than solving the equations itself.

Now that you know the answer, go test your friends and feel like a genius.

By stephluo@sph.com.sg, SPH DIGITAL NEWS, Friday, 22 April 2016