{"id":9344,"date":"2026-02-17T19:42:39","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T19:42:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/?p=9344"},"modified":"2026-02-17T19:42:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T19:42:39","slug":"math-problem-leaves-the-internet-scratching-their-heads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/?p=9344","title":{"rendered":"Math problem leaves the internet scratching their heads"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"88\" data-end=\"306\">If you\u2019re like me, math in high school wasn\u2019t fun. I\u2019m more creative than logical, but solving online puzzles has become a guilty pleasure. And I\u2019m not alone\u2014many enjoy spotting patterns and cracking tricky problems.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"308\" data-end=\"340\">Here\u2019s a classic brain-teaser:<\/p>\n<div class=\"contain-inline-size rounded-2xl corner-superellipse\/1.1 relative bg-token-sidebar-surface-primary\">\n<div class=\"sticky top-[calc(var(--sticky-padding-top)+9*var(--spacing))]\">\n<div class=\"absolute end-0 bottom-0 flex h-9 items-center pe-2\">\n<div class=\"bg-token-bg-elevated-secondary text-token-text-secondary flex items-center gap-4 rounded-sm px-2 font-sans text-xs\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"overflow-y-auto p-4\" dir=\"ltr\"><code class=\"whitespace-pre!\">1 + 4 = 5<br \/>\n2 + 5 = 12<br \/>\n3 + 6 = 21<br \/>\n5 + 8 = ?<br \/>\n<\/code><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p data-start=\"399\" data-end=\"506\">It\u2019s left much of the internet stumped, and there\u2019s more than one solution. Here are five ways to solve it:<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"508\" data-end=\"558\"><strong data-start=\"508\" data-end=\"533\">Solution 1 (A + A\u00d7B):<\/strong><br data-start=\"533\" data-end=\"536\" \/>5 + 8 = 5 + 5\u00d78 = 45<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"560\" data-end=\"625\"><strong data-start=\"560\" data-end=\"597\">Solution 2 (Add previous answer):<\/strong><br data-start=\"597\" data-end=\"600\" \/>5 + 8 = 5 + 8 + 21 = 34<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"627\" data-end=\"691\"><strong data-start=\"627\" data-end=\"661\">Solution 3 (Sequence formula):<\/strong><br data-start=\"661\" data-end=\"664\" \/>5 + 8 = (9 + 2) + 21 = 32<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"693\" data-end=\"764\"><strong data-start=\"693\" data-end=\"733\">Solution 4 (Decreasing base system):<\/strong><br data-start=\"733\" data-end=\"736\" \/>5 + 8 = 13 in base 3 = 111<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"766\" data-end=\"852\"><strong data-start=\"766\" data-end=\"820\">Solution 5 (Decreasing base with missing numbers):<\/strong><br data-start=\"820\" data-end=\"823\" \/>5 + 8 = 13 in base 2 = 1101<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"854\" data-end=\"923\">Multiple correct answers exist, depending on the method you choose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>If you\u2019re like me, math in high school wasn\u2019t fun. I\u2019m more creative than logical, but solving online puzzles has become a guilty pleasure. And <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/?p=9344\" title=\"Math problem leaves the internet scratching their heads\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9345,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9344"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9346,"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9344\/revisions\/9346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}