Math riddle on TikTok sparks debate among millions of users

The video published on TikTok by user @walkofftheearth has been viewed over 3 million times so far. However, most people could not solve the equation presented there. "It's simple math," wrote one user. But is it?

Math is rightfully called the true queen of sciences. After all, it is useful not only in school but also in everyday life. It is important to know how much money we spend on shopping or receive as payment for our work. However, sometimes even the simplest equations can play tricks on us.

One TikTok user decided to test his friend's math knowledge. He asked her to add several numbers under the line. There was a small catch—he revealed them one by one. First appeared 1000, then 40, 1000, 30, 1000, 20, 1000, and finally 10. The woman confidently answered that it should be 5000. The man proved her wrong, stating that the correct result is 4100.

The woman, calculating everything from memory, imagined the sum as 4090. After adding 10, her brain incorrectly assumed that it should be 5000. She forgot that, in this case, she should round the numbers to hundreds instead of thousands.

The equation turned out to be very problematic for many internet users. Most of them gave the same result as the woman being tested by the TikToker, whose voice can be heard in the recording.

"I also added it incorrectly, so I had to recalculate it."

"I could have answered correctly if I hadn't heard her say 5000."

"It took me longer than it should have..."

However, there were also those who were not fooled and solved the equation correctly.

"I don't understand what all the fuss is about? It's simple math."

"It's not that difficult, and I'm bad even at the simplest math tasks. Lol, I answered correctly the first time."