03 March 2024 , 19:30
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TV star and maths whizz Rachel Riley has left fans scratching their heads with a mind-boggling maths equation.
Whether you were keen for maths at school, or if it was your most dreaded subject, we can all remember sitting in class trying to figure out hard equations. Maths puzzles can keep our brains active and help improve problem-solving skills, as well as enhance your critical thinking. Can you solve this head-scratcher?
New Zealand filmmaker and actor Taika Waititi - also known for being the partner of Rita Ora - shared a numbers riddle with his 1.4million followers on X (formerly Twitter). To help, Countdown legend Rachel Riley reposted the tweet and was quick to aid people struggling with the equation which reads: 2+5 (8-5).
The equation left people stumped on social media (Twitter)Rachel, who was awarded an MBE last year from King Charles, said: "Perfect tweet combining my undying loves of Taika Waititi and maths. There's only one right answer to this, what is it? Go!"
Trying to work the equation out, Taika, 46, said: "What the f*** is this? None of it makes any sense. Is it seven and then three in brackets? So seven (but really three), so the answer is 3."
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A number of people said they were left with an answer of 17 or 21 when they tried to work it out.
What answer did you get?
Over the past 14 years, Rachel Riley has been quickly working out maths equations on TV. Thankfully, she helped settle the debate on this seemingly-easy, yet confusing sum.
Rachel explained how to work the maths sum out, and said: "The original means the same as how you’ve written it with brackets, but the brackets aren’t technically necessary.
"Using BODMAS (M = multiplication comes before A = addition) the answer would be 17 either way."
Did you manage to solve the maths equation? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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