One viral brain-teaser is causing people to question everything they thought they knew about math - just in time for the holidays! The problem was recently shared by the popular Instagram account, The Shade Room, where it has received over 30,000 comments at press time. Based on the drastically varying answers in the comments, it's clear that this is a pretty sneaky one. Let's break it down.
Based on the first three equations, one can gather that one snowflake equals the number 10, one candy cane equals five, and the wine glasses equal two. Now, in the final equation, there are a few things going on. First of all, it swaps out the second addition sign for the multiplication sign. Then, instead of two wine glasses, there's now just one wine glass being shown. So, there's one candy cane (five) plus one wine glass (one) multiplied by one snowflake (10).
If you got 60, you're not alone. Many are forgetting PEMDAS, or the correct order of operations used in equations. Following the rule, you need to multiply the snowflake and wine glass first, to get 10, and then simply add the candy cane last - amounting to 15!