This little puzzle made a lot of people’s minds boil in Japan, including scientists.
Research shows that only 60% of people born in 1990’s can solve this equation. The very same problem was given to 20-year-olds about 30 years ago and the result was quite surprisingly different – about 90% of the participants gave the right answer. Are we becoming dumber?
Try yourself!
How is it going? Do you think you got it right? Go ahead and take a look at the right answer below.
Correct answer: 1.
Now let me explain it.
A lot of people start off by taking the wrong path. The 1/3 is the tricky part. So the WRONG solution goes like this:
9–3÷1/3+1=9–3/1/3+1=9–3/3+1=9–1+1=9
However, the very first line goes against the rules of math.
The right solution:
9–3÷1/3+1=9–3÷(1/3)+1=9–3×3+1=9–9+1=1
