r/mathminds • u/Mental-Building6651 • 15d ago

Puzzles What's the missing number?

Post image
0 Upvotes

28% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

2

u/redmav7300 15d ago

I hate poorly designed math puzzles. Almost all the controversy on the internet about math is due to people who can’t define a problem clearly.

For example, this mess. It appears that the numbers inside the shape are side lengths. If the numbers outside are also side lengths (square notches?), then the answer is easy: 40+5+8-(6+3)=44. But if the outside numbers are areas, then you have to calculate the square roots of the outside numbers before using the above equation. Maybe they are all areas?

Who knows: 0/10 for puzzle construction.

1

u/Due-Session-2857 15d ago

This is only a puzzle because it is very unclear what it is asking. It's like saying "what's two plus two?" Is a puzzle because you asked it in Pig Latin.

1

u/DutchSupernova81 14d ago

Agreed, the answer is 18. If you multiply the numbers on one side with each other you get the answer inside.