Everyone’s Trying This Incredibly Annoying Math Addition Challenge
Everyone’s falling for a viral math problem on TikTok.
This addition problem is ridiculously easy, but it keeps tripping people up.
If you fell for this, boy do we have some more brainteasers for you.
We can always count on TikTok users to tell us what’s cool at any given moment, from making surprisingly scientific whipped coffee to discovering ancient ways to multiply. Now, the very good and very smart young people on Donald Trump’s least favorite app are at it again—and this time, they’re pranking their friends with a math challenge.
TikTok users are sharing an addition problem that seems easy enough at first glance, but people’s mental arithmetic skills get tripped up by the same part of it. All you have to do is add up the following numbers—that’s seriously it. Try it for yourself:
1,000
40
1,000
30
1,000
20
1,000
10
If you came up with 5,000, then congratulations: You’re not alone.
But you’re also not correct. The actual right answer is 4,100.
See, it’s remarkably straightforward to add up the first bunch of numbers in your head. 1,000 plus 40 is 1,040, plus 1,000 is 2,040, plus 30 is 3,070, plus 1,000 is 3,070, plus 20 is 3,090, plus 1,000 is 4,090. But it’s at this penultimate sum that things get tricky.
Most people, when adding 10 to that figure, come up with 5,000. But that’s your brain skipping ahead (and overlooking a zero). The correct sum is actually, of course, 4,100.
If you got the answer wrong, don’t feel too bad. So did these people:
Now, Solve This!
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