Here is a quick, fun, and self-indulgent story: I recently started studying for the GRE, and, upon skimming through the workbook, realized that I hadn\u2019t taken a math class in almost nine years. Any confidence I had in my quantitative reasoning abilities quickly dissipated. I\u2019ve since begun taking intro level high school math classes online because I literally have to start from scratch, so when I came upon this viral math problem that\u2019s stumping the Internet, I thought, \u201cAha! A chance to test my 9th grade math abilities!\u201d<\/p>\n
File that one under \u201cFamous last words.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the deal: Researchers in Japan reportedly came across this deceptive number jumble after finding that only 60 percent of people in their 20s who attempted to solve it did so correctly. (Great, another thing Millennials have ruined \u2014 math.) It has since gone viral, as these things are wont to do, because apparently none of us have anything better to do with our time than to try (and usually fail) to solve weird brain teasers.<\/p>\n
But maybe there\u2019s more to it than meets the eye. As soon as I saw the math problem, I knew there were probably tricks involved, because it seemed Too Easy. I also knew that if I attempted to solve it actively in this article, no one would ever take me seriously again, because my math abilities are abysmal. I would be laughed out of grad school, probably. Or something.<\/p>\n
Thus, I turned to instructional videos from the interwebs. Why? Because if there\u2019s one thing I\u2019ve learned from the interwebs, it\u2019s that if you\u2019re having a problem with something \u2014 anything \u2014 someone else is probably also having a problem with it\u2026 and accordingly, they\u2019ve probably gone ahead and figured it out, making an instructional video documenting their solution as they went. So, yeah \u2014 I\u2019ve been watching other people do math all morning. It\u2019s been great.<\/p>\n
Now, before you join me in the wide world of online math tutorials, you should try this problem out for yourselves. Are you ready for it? Here it is:https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=07Abat5iBbw<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here is a quick, fun, and self-indulgent story: I recently started studying for the GRE, and, upon skimming through the workbook, realized that I hadn\u2019t taken a… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n