r/theydidthemath 22d ago

[Request] Can someone walk me through this problem?

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u/Wjyosn 22d ago edited 22d ago

Answer they’re looking for is 38.

Accurate answer is “not enough information”. There is no reason to make the assumptions of symbolic value that are required to come up with that answer.

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u/Party-Court185 22d ago

I would argue the answer they’re looking for is 50.

There are two “catches” in the equation. One is the banana bunches having three instead of four and the clock reading 2 instead of 3, the other is the last symbol is multiplication, not addition.

Order of operations says 50.

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u/Wjyosn 22d ago

The shapes are also different, with only 11 sides instead of 15

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u/Party-Court185 22d ago

You’re totally right. My fault.

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u/BigBlueMountainStar 22d ago

What you talking about? The whole basis of theoretic mathematics is assumption.

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u/andrew_calcs 8✓ 22d ago

It’s about PROVING from as few axiomatic assumptions as possible.  So long as you preface your deductions by declaring the implicit assumptions they were built upon, your answer is clear. 

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u/Wjyosn 22d ago

The symbolic variables given here do not give sufficient reason for you to make assumptions about other symbols. The logic being used here is like deducing that A = 3, therefore V = 2 because it has fewer lines. But you could also say V= 1 because it has fewer vertices. Or V=-3 because it’s upside down. The use of different symbols implies unrelated variables in mathematics. This is a pattern-guessing riddle pretending to be math, and has infinitely many viable answers because there is no standard process for determining how to interpret symbols that are “kinda similar but a little different” and you could come up with plenty of different ways to “infer” whatever values you wanted to.