Lateral Thinking

The Misleading Mathematics of Memes

Math memes are fun and tricky, but don’t let them prevent you from thinking outside the box.

Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash

I really do enjoy math-based meme-tricks, and have encountered many of them along the theme I’ll show here. I think it’s important to understand the whole process of what these problems present — the process of ow the answers are arrived at. But, it’s equally important to not feel limited by the so-called correct answers, as there are other factors at play, which I’ll discuss.

The Typical Math-Based Meme:

The First Answer They Want You to Give: 19

• Shoes = 10 each (10+10+10 = 30)
• Shoes (10) + x + x = 20. Therefore: x (Man) = 5 each (5+5+10 = 20)
• Man (5) + y + y = 13. Therefore: y (Things) = 4 each (4+4+5 = 13)
• Therefore: Shoe + Man + Thing= 19 (10+5+4 = 19)

So, the first mistake is to overlook (1) the fact that it’s only ONE shoe and ONE weight thing, and also (2) multiplication symbol.

The Next Answer They Want you…