Maths problem for children leaves adults stumped

 A maths problem aimed at 14-year-olds has left adults scratching their heads.

Posting in the Reddit thread dedicated to solving homework issues, a user by the name of @coconutbabies shared that they were puzzled over a question that didn’t seem to have an answer.

Sharing a photo of the equation, they wrote: ‘Can’t get an answer that is an option. I did my work and I keep getting 36.’

The equation was: ’12÷4X18÷(3+3)X4′

They explained the question was for high school students in Ninth Grade, or Year 10 in the UK.

While the question was multiple choice, the user wasn’t able to arrive at an answer that was one of the options given, which were: A: 18, B: 21, C. 16, D: 20.

They clarified in the comments that they were helping their brother out with his homework, but was unsure because they ‘haven’t done it in years’. 

In an effort to help, other Reddit users chimed in with their solutions to the tricky maths problem. 

‘No you’re right, it is 36, the paper is just wrong,’ one person offered.

Another agreed that the answer was 36 and added: ‘Also, don’t get worked up about the order of operations problems that are made to be confusing. 

‘Real math never writes the operations in this strung-out left-to-right way, precisely because it’s ambiguous and asking for errors.’

 A third said the answer was still 36 even if the equation was worked out the other way around, writing: ‘It’s even 36 whether you do multiplication before division or if you just do it from left to right.’

Most users got to the answer by first solving the equation in the brackets, which was 3+3=6.

Then they worked out the division and multiplication equations separately, from left to right.

 This meant dividing 12 by 4 (12÷4), which equalled 3, and then multiplying 3 by 18 (3X18).

This equalled 54, which was then divided by 6 (54÷6), equalling 9. 

Finally, 9 was multiplied by 4 (9X4), which gave the final answer of 36.

Other people took issue with the way the equation was written, particularly with the divide (÷) symbol.

One person wrote: ‘The answer is 36. That being said nobody writes Math like that (and for good reason).’ 

‘Are they still seriously using the ÷ symbol in 9th grade?’ a second user questioned. 

Another declared: ‘Any teacher that still gives problems using a ÷ sign should be required to take a modern course in mathematics education to retain their license.’

Explaining their opinion, they added that they are a certified maths and physics teacher, with a Bachelor’s degree in physics, math and secondary education.

‘The time I used to spend correcting previous teachers’ order of operations instructions given to my students could’ve been used to better ends,’ they continued.

‘To be be perfectly honest, teaching kids order of operations could be so much simpler if people were less ambiguous with their notation. We wouldn’t have issues like yours or with every single Facebook math BS posted here.’

Another person agreed and commented: ‘Right? Problems like these seem to teach kids that math is for useless riddles with no certain answer, not a tool they can use in their real lives!’

It comes after several people found themselves struggling to solve maths problems left on a GCSE paper from an exam earlier this year.

After revising long and hard for their exams over the past couple of months, British teenagers finally received their GCSE results on August 21.

It marked a tense occasion for both students and their parents – who would’ve had to refresh their numeracy and literacy skills themselves to help children study.

From year nine onwards, teenagers are taught more challenging mathematical concepts such as algebra, geometry, fractions, ratio, logic and statistics.

Many parents, however, would have forgotten the basics by the time their offspring’s exams came around.

So, how would you fare if faced with GCSE questions that 16-year-olds have to answer?  

The Daily Mail plucked some real questions from taken from a 2024 OCR non-calculator higher paper. 

Here are 12 questions from a GCSE Higher Tier OCR mathematics exam. You may need a pen and paper… 

1. Work out 1.2 ÷ 0.03

2. Solve the following problem: 

3 (A) y is directly proportional to x. Write down the percentage increase in y when x is increased by 100% 

(B) z is inversely proportional to x. Write down the percentage decrease in z when x is increased by 100%.

4. Find the value of a in the problem below: 

5. Solve the inequality below: 

6. Sasha invests £1000 at a rate of 5% per year compound interest. Sasha says: ‘After one year, my investment will get £50 in interest and will be worth £1050. Therefore, after two years, my investment will get another £50 in interest and will be worth £1100.’ Is Sasha correct? Give a reason for your answer

7. Expand and simplify: (X+3)(4X+1)(X-2)

8. Find the nth term in the following sequence:

9. Work out the perimeter of the shape below:

10. Two prisms, A and B, are mathematically similar. The ratio of the volume of prism A to the volume of prism B is 8 : 27. The height of prism A is 6 cm. Work out the height of prism B.