Do you know 6÷2(1+2)? This viral maths question seems to outsmart us all

Right now there’s a maths equation going viral, and people are straight up losing their heads over it. The question is 6÷2(1+2), which might seem fairly simple, but apparently it’s not.

The sum has been shared multiple times across Twitter, and just one single share alone has over 4million views. People in the comments are fighting over the answer, and are now wondering if they ever attended maths at school.

“That time when you realise you shouldn’t have skipped maths class,” one person said. It seems the two main answers people are getting are either 9 or 1 – but nobody can settle which is actually right.

“Since the equation is badly written, the answer is ambiguous and can be either 9 or 1 – both are technically correct,” one person argued. In the replies, though, someone clapped back: “It’s written good and the only correct answer is 9, how do people even get to 1”.

In quite a complicated way of answering it, one person said: “I originally thought BODMAS, which would equal 9. However, because of the missing equation, it’s implied it would be multiplication. 6/2 missing (1+2). Apparently one must calculate the brackets first & imply it’s multiplied by the left side number. 6/2(1+2)= 6/(2×3)=6/6=1.”

So, what is 6÷2(1+2)?

When you Google the sum, it comes up as a viral maths question that has flummoxed us all for years. There are YouTube videos about it, and other articles trying to solve it dating all the way back to 2016.

The confusion comes as follows – some people do the brackets first, expanding 1+2 to equal 3, multiplying by the 2, and then dividing the result by the 6 – which equals 1.

Buuuuut, the correct answer is 9 because you expand the brackets and get 6÷2×3 and then do the sum in order. Sorry if you thought it was 1!

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