Wednesday 2 October 2013

What's the answer to 6÷2(1+2) ?





Okay... let's do this

First of all, apologies if you feel this question is too easy, I thought so too... except.. out of the >570k comments on Facebook, the answer is almost split 50/50 , 1 or 9. With a few answering 6. ( if this is you please comment)

BTW there are huge long debates online about this. And some rather smart people arguing for either answer.
Google calculator answer =9

I don't have any super qualifications, just an interest in answers. Of course this answer is just my own.

So.. my answer for this question is ....1 !!

I'll just show my reasoning, feel free to disagree.

6÷2 (1+2)
= 6÷ 2 (3)
= 6÷ 6

= 1

This is what most people who answer 1 will get , no questions on this (1+2)--->(3)

The question is 6÷ 2 first or 2(3) first?

First of all 6/2 is not 6÷ 2
and 2(3) is not 2x3

If the question was 6÷2 x 3 the answer would be 9
So my solution here is 2(3) should be solved before 6÷ 2 as I take 2(3) as a single unit

If it was 6/2 (1+2)

Numbers.jpg

top answer is 9 bottom answer is 1

And another thing 6÷2(1+2) is not (6÷2) (1+2) as the answer for this is also 9

Let's do some algebra 6÷2 (1+2) = X , Solve X

6÷2 (1+2) = X
6=2x(1+2)  or  [2x+4x]
6=6x  
X=1

Oh wait... that still fails to solve the argument

Try    6÷X(1+2) = 9  VS     6÷X(1+2) = 1               Pick the equation that would fulfill X=2

Which one would solve our problem?

6÷X(1+2) = 9
6= 9X(1+2)
6=9X+18X
6= 27X
X=2/9     ---- this is not right!

6÷X(1+2) = 1
6=X(1+2)
6=X+2X
6=3X
X=2

If you plug X=2 into the equation you get 6÷2(1+2) = 1

Not enough?

6÷X(1+2) = 1
6÷(X+2X) =1
6÷3X=1
3X=6
X=2

Just for fun,we could do 6÷2(1+X) = 1    to satisfy our answer we need X=2

6÷2(1+X) = 1
6÷(2+2X)=1
6=2+2X
4=2X
X=2

Hope that helps.. the only people that would change my mind, maybe are my maths teachers (if they told me they had taught me wrongly) or this guy..



BAZINGA!









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