Everyone’s divided over an error in this viral maths video and it’s driving me mad

Another day, another maths video going viral on the timeline. Honestly, all influencers should start taking note because clearly the way to go to get success is just forcing everyone to have a Carol Vorderman and Rachel Riley maths era. Literally only yesterday we had a maths sum go viral because group chats were divided over the answer to 60÷5(7-4), the latest equation having everyone wish they paid that little bit more attention in high school maths. Today, though, the viral maths problem is a weird little number pattern one that has the nine times table being answers in a little pattern – with one major issue. There’s an error in it, and people are looking to see if they can spot it.

The viral maths video basically shows how if you wrote out the nine times table, from one to 10, if you then write in the answer box down 0 to 10, and then back up 0 to nine, you’ll get the right answers. Except there’s a major flaw to this logic, and otherwise charming little pattern and hack – 9×2 does not equal 12. Everyone in the replies is clocking this error, but if you look deeper it seems this isn’t an accident after all.

The original video is posted in Spanish, but the translation reads “Make a simple mistake to increase engagement on your post. This increases clicks and views, which makes the algorithm and advertisers happy.” So basically, they purposely messed up in order to increase engagement. A bit evil if you ask me.

Still, it’s easy to get swept up in the pattern and not notice it. Did you clock the maths error first time round?

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