Mathematics is a universal assistant that is worth making friends with already in primary school. If you know this subject well, then studying other sciences will go much better. Mathematics develops thinking, teaches to find patterns, and make logical conclusions.
And today the InfoPast editorial board offers to do a bit of maths by solving a couple of interesting exercises. Think like a mathematician to solve each trick example. This a good test for those readers who are confident in the strength of their mathematical knowledge.
Think like a mathematician
1.It’s hardly worth starting with the most difficult tasks, so let’s offer a kind of warm-up. Looking at the picture below, you will see an example in which some mathematical symbols representing arithmetic operations are missing. Instead of the question mark, there could be addition, subtraction, division or multiplication. Can you make the example clear?
2.The second task is more difficult because there are three question marks to be dealt with at once. Here too, each “?” can be followed by any of the four basic arithmetic operations. Can you do this one too?
3.There was much controversy surrounding the solution to the last example. Internet users split into two camps, with the supporters of each answer convinced that they were right. Can you avoid confusion and find the solution that is the only correct one in this case?
Hints and answers
1.Observant readers will immediately notice how to turn “22” into “24” in two steps. Especially since there are numbers “19” and “21” that also differ by two. Therefore, you need to subtract “19” from “22” and then add “21” to get “24” in the end.
2.In the second example, there is multiplication and subtraction. If you couldn’t find the key to the puzzle, take a look at the picture with the solution. As you can see, it turned out to be quite simple.
3.First, you need to perform the operations in parentheses, and then go from left to right. Therefore, in this case, we get: 12 ÷ 2(3 + 3) = 12 ÷ 2 × 6 = 6 × 6 = 36. Although many people here perform arithmetic operations in the wrong sequence, which results in “1”.
