This Maths quiz was posted
on the social media and soon enough, the world went crazy trying to figure out
the answer. What was amazing was that it looked so simple, yet had people
racking their brains in trying to solve it.
The Big Macs, milkshakes, and French fries make the quiz look
simple, but when you take a closer look, you are nowhere closer to solving it. If only teachers
in schools created maths equations using everyone’s favourite French Fries and
McAloo Tikki burger, how wonderful would maths classes become!
The first line of the quiz shows three McDonald's drinks adding up
to a value of 30. Next, two burgers and a drink add up to 20. Finally, four
portions of chips and one burger add up to nine. The last line asks you to use
the information provided to answer how much one burger and one portion of chips
multiplied by a drink is worth.
Most people struggled as they did not notice that the third sum
involved two portions of chips, whereas the fourth line only has one. Yet
others remain confused about the order in which to multiply and add in the
final line. However, to work out the answer, you first need to understand the
cost of each product.
From the first line, you know that each drink is worth 10, while from
the second line you learn that a burger is worth five. From the third line (remember
there are a total of four packet of chips) you learn that each packet of chips
is worth one.
In the final, apply the rule that multiplication comes before
addition. You multiply the chips by the drink, totalling 10, before adding the
burger, which gives you the answer as 15.
The quizwas posted on the McDonald’s international website. While, at first, most
people thought they had it wrapped up. But then, they were flummoxed when their
answer was declared as a wrong answer! Yes, this quiz too was a clever, tricky
question which is why people were pulling out their hair.
Okay,
here’s why 15 is the correct answer. There are not one but two packets of French
fries in the third row, and just one in the fourth row. Do you get it now?
Another way to solve the problem is to apply the rule of BODMAS, according
to which, you first multiply, then divide. BODMAS abbreviation stands for B (Brackets
first), O (Orders i.e. Powers and Square Roots), DM (Division and
Multiplication), AS (Addition and Subtraction).
Here’s how you work it out: 10+10+10=30; 10+5+5=20; 5+2+2=9; apply
BODMAS (5+(1×10), to get 15!
So far, over 1,500
Last year, a similar tricky maths question asked people to figure out
how many passengers were originally on a train. The quiz went as follows: 'There
were some people on a train. Nineteen people get off the train at the first
stop. Seventeen people get on the train. Now there are 63 people on the train.
How many people were on the train to begin with?'
The correct answer turned out to be 65, which one arrives at by
subtracting the 17 people who just boarded from the current number of
passengers 63, to get 46. Then you add the 19 passengers who got off to arrive
at 65.
