Twitter loves a good puzzle, so it comes as no surprise to see this one going viral. A Twitter user recently shared a seemingly simple math equation with the answer already provided, and asked netizens to make sense of it.
"A maths meme that is actually funny rather than stupid," wrote KJ Cheetham, asking people to solve "230 - 220 x 0.5".
The catch here is that according to him, the answer to the equation is 5!
A maths meme that is actually funny rather than stupid:
— KJ Cheetham ❄️ #FBPE 🔶 (@kj_cheetham) July 13, 2019
Solve carefully!
230 - 220 x 0.5 =
You probably won't believe it but the answer is 5!#maths
The equation has collected over 29,000 'retweets' and twice as many 'likes' since it was shared online.
I am not advanced enough to understand why this is not 120 and that makes me sad ☹
— EU Naughty Boy 🇪🇺🏳️🌈 (@RemainOnly) July 13, 2019
I had to think 1 min why....
— Peter Millet (@peter_millet) July 14, 2019
12 years ago i would have known it immediately!
I'm getting old... Oh Noooooo
— 🍊TonyRockyHorror🍊 (@maroleon111) July 15, 2019
Many who tried solving the puzzle were left scratching their head. Using school-level math, after all, led to the conclusion that the answer should be 120. So how did "5" enter the equation? The answer to that lies in the overlooked exclamation mark after the 5.
The exclamation mark used after five is actually a symbol for factorial. In mathematics, factorial is denoted by 'n!' and it is the product of all positive integers less than or equal to 'n'.
In this case, it means that "5!" is actually "5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1", and the answer is 120.
5! = 5x4x3x2x1 = 120
— KJ Cheetham ❄️ #FBPE 🔶 (@kj_cheetham) July 13, 2019
Is it 5? No! It is 5!
— Stefan Rahmstorf (@rahmstorf) July 14, 2019
Were you able to make sense of the equation? Let us know using the comments section.
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