I think it’s safe to say that there are two types of people in the world: people who enjoy math and people who avoid it like the plague. Now to be sure, there are different variants within those two camps. For example, I enjoy math, but it’s because I enjoy the challenge of it. I did not enjoy it when I was having anxiety attacks in college algebra. For most of my life, I avoided math like the plague. Math was a real challenge for me in school and it wasn’t until I was much older that I discovered that I probably just had a hard time focusing. However, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve started enjoying puzzles like the one we have here.
If you did well in math class, this problem is probably easy for you. However, for some reason, most people fear math. Why is that? Oxford Learning says that there are four reasons most people hate math. The first is that there are limited numbers of ways to earn grades. In English and writing classes, for example, there are lots of factors to consider. But in math, an answer is either right or wrong. The second reason is that many students find it dull and uninteresting. The third reason is that it requires lots of memorization and many people are intimidated by that. In other words, you can’t just wing it with math.
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Last, many people hate math because you have to make a lot of mistakes to learn it. The fact is, making mistakes doesn’t “feel good.” When we get a math problem or a puzzle correct, the brain releases chemicals that feel good. Making mistakes affects our self-confidence, and not in a good way. Can you work the puzzle below? To understand the answer, it helped to talk with some math teachers. If you don’t know the answer, scroll down past the image and we’ll tell you how to solve it.
The math problem is: 50 + 50 – 25 x 0 + 2 + 2 = ?
To solve the problem, you have to make some assumptions. For one thing, the problem is missing an essential thing that we’re accustomed to seeing: some parentheses. But it’s solvable without the handy parentheses. One way to work it would be to use PEMDAS. PEMDAS = Parenthesis, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction. Here’s how it works.
To help you remember it, you can also remember this handy acronym.
So with that help, here’s how you would solve the problem. The answers people give are all over the place, but there is a correct answer. It’s math, after all.
Here are the basic principles:
1. First, do what’s in the parentheses (in this situation, there are none).
2. Second, do the exponents (again, there are none).
3. Third, do any multiplication or division (whichever comes first) from left to right (-25 x 0 =0).
4. Now you have 50+50-0+2+2.
5. Next, do the addition and subtraction from left to right, 50+50 = 100.
6. That leaves you with 100-0+2+2.
7. This gives you the correct answer of 104.
