{"id":3359,"date":"2026-08-29T00:00:32","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T00:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/storydosee.com\/?p=3359"},"modified":"2026-08-29T00:00:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T00:00:32","slug":"the-tricky-math-puzzle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/storydosee.com\/?p=3359","title":{"rendered":"The Tricky Math Puzzle"},"content":{"rendered":"

At first glance, this looks like a simple math problem that should take only a few seconds.<\/p>\n

But there is a small detail in the way the expression is written that can easily make you stop and think twice.<\/p>\n

The puzzle asks us to solve:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Before choosing an answer, it is important not to rush.<\/p>\n

The safest approach is to follow the standard order of operations step by step.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with the part inside the parentheses.<\/p>\n

We have 6 \u2212 7 + 4.<\/p>\n

Subtraction and addition have the same priority, so we work from left to right.<\/p>\n

First, 6 \u2212 7 gives us \u22121.<\/p>\n

Then, \u22121 + 4 gives us 3.<\/p>\n

So the original expression becomes:<\/p>\n

12 \u00f7 2(3) \u00d7 2<\/p>\n

Now things get a little more interesting.<\/p>\n

Multiplication and division have the same priority in standard arithmetic.<\/p>\n

That means we do not automatically multiply before dividing just because a multiplication sign appears next to the parentheses.<\/p>\n

Instead, we work from left to right.<\/p>\n

So we begin with 12 \u00f7 2.<\/p>\n

That gives us 6.<\/p>\n

Next, we multiply by the 3 from the parentheses.<\/p>\n

Six times three is 18.<\/p>\n

Finally, we multiply by the last 2.<\/p>\n

Eighteen times two gives us 36.<\/p>\n

So, following the usual left-to-right rule for multiplication and division, the answer is 36.<\/p>\n

That means the correct choice from the image is A.<\/p>\n

But why do some people get 4?<\/p>\n

The reason is the way the expression is written.<\/p>\n

Some readers treat 2(3) as a single denominator, effectively reading the problem as 12 \u00f7 [2(3)] \u00d7 2.<\/p>\n

If you calculate it that way, you get 12 \u00f7 6 \u00d7 2, which equals 4.<\/p>\n

That explains why answer B can look very convincing.<\/p>\n

However, that interpretation requires treating the multiplication by 2 and the parentheses as being grouped together as part of the divisor.<\/p>\n

There are no brackets around 2(6 \u2212 7 + 4) in the original expression to explicitly indicate that grouping.<\/p>\n

Under the conventional order of operations, multiplication and division are handled equally from left to right.<\/p>\n

That leads us to 36.<\/p>\n

This puzzle is therefore less about difficult arithmetic and more about carefully reading mathematical notation.<\/p>\n

It is also a good reminder that parentheses do not automatically mean everything next to them belongs to the denominator of a division.<\/p>\n

If the writer wanted the answer to clearly be 4, a less ambiguous version would be something like:<\/p>\n

12 \u00f7 [2(6 \u2212 7 + 4)] \u00d7 2<\/p>\n

Clear brackets would remove the confusion.<\/p>\n

So if you picked 36, your calculation follows the standard left-to-right convention.<\/p>\n

If you picked 4, you noticed a genuine ambiguity in the way the expression was written.<\/p>\n

The important lesson is to slow down, simplify the parentheses first, and then carefully apply the order of operations.<\/p>\n

In this particular multiple-choice puzzle, the expected answer is A: 36.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At first glance, this looks like a simple math problem that should take only a few seconds. But there is a small detail in the way the expression is written that can easily make you stop and think twice. The puzzle asks us to solve: Before choosing an answer, it is important not to rush. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3360,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"views":161,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storydosee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storydosee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storydosee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storydosee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storydosee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3359"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/storydosee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3361,"href":"https:\/\/storydosee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3359\/revisions\/3361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storydosee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storydosee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storydosee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storydosee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}