If you were on Facebook today, there’s a pretty good chance you came across this fruit-based brain teaser. The internet is going crazy for it. What seems like a simple maths equation is actually a bit more complex than it first appears. Can you solve it?
The above maths puzzle uses pieces of fruit in lieu of numbers and asks you to calculate the final answer based on what came before. It can be deduced from the first equation that apples have a value of 10. The second equation suggests bananas have a value of 4, while the third gives coconuts a value of 2.
Hoever, if you thought the final answer was 16, you’d be completely wrong. If you’re stumped as to how this could be, you need to take a closer look at the individual pieces of fruit…Cheeky, eh?
We’ll leave it to you to our readers to supply the solution and answer in the comments.
[Via POPSUGAR]
Comments
42 responses to “Can You Solve This Children’s Maths Puzzle?”
14wrong. add 2 to your answer
bahahaha. just looked at it again.
fail = me
indeed you are correct. ha ha ha
The coconut value should be 1 in the fourth line. Because there is only half of the coconut given.
So the final aswer is 1+10+4 = 15
15, there’s only one coconut.Close, but not quite.
Damn, didn’t see the missing banana…
and only 3 bananas1415!
14
There is half a coconut and only 3 bananas in the bunch14.
Only 1 coconut and 3 bananas, so 1 + 10 + 3 = 14.Apple * 3 = 30,
Apple = 10.
10 + 2 * Banana = 18.
2 * Banana = 8
Banana = 4.
Banana – (coconut + coconut) = 2
4 – (1 + 1) = 2
coconut + apple + banana = ?
1 + 10 + 4 = 15?
If you look closely, there are only three bananas in the bunch in the final line.
Ah damn! Sneaky sneaky
Its 14
I’d say the equation is unsolvable, because
it is never proven that the values of the images are a function of the number of fruits, what that function is (e.g. linear value*n_fruit, value/n_fruit, etc.), or even that the values have any meaning. There is simply not enough information.agreed! However I do remember puzzles like this in primary school but instead of a group of bananas ,etc it was a single banana and when they wanted half it was literally cut in half. This as you stated is not clear at all. Maybe we are all over thinking it now 😛
You sir/madam, are an intelligent individual.
Exactly, there is no establishment of the rule that the pictograms are related if they change.
13
a banana = 1, 4 bananas = 4
although you could argue that the coconut halves could be 1.5 and 0.5, or the smaller coconut could = 2 while the larger coconut = 0, since they appear to be different and thats what this problem is all about.
and you could also argue that each banana in the bunch of 4 have differing values all adding up to 4, heck the very top banana in each bunch of 4 could be worth 4 whilst the other 3 could all be worth 0, or the very top banana could be worth 0 whilst the other 3 add up to 4.
so the answer can be any number from 10 to 14, 10.00000001, 13.234, 12.5 etc.
12X=10
Y=-6
Z=8
actually i’ve seen my error now. Damn, I haven’t done simultaneous equations since high school!
1 apple(10) + 3 bananas(3) + 1/2 coconut(1) = 14
All I know is, today’s kids are going to grow up not understanding “apples and oranges” is meant to mean you can’t do maths like this because fruit are not numbers!
And if i’m not cantankerous enough now, I sure as hell will be then >:(
Fruit Salad!14
There are 4 bananas in the bunches in lines 2 and 3, but only 3 in the bunch on the last line, and there are two coconuts in line 3 but only 1 in line 4.
3a = 30, so a = 10
a + 4b + 4b = 18, sub in a = 10, so 8b = 8, b = 1
4b – 2c = 2,
sub b=1: 4 – 2c = 2
-2c = -2,
c = 1
Final line, c + a + 3b = ?
1 + 10 + 3 = 14.
The only people who wouldn’t be able to get this right are the same idiots who can’t see the pandas, can’t see how many padlocks are unlocked etc.
God these things are dumb, a 5 year old could figure facebook ‘puzzles’ out.
but… but… facebook said only geniuses could :O!!
(Seriously though I feel these questions are so stupid as well, so it saddens me to see it on lifehacker as well :/)
Obviously, 14. Why does it even require an article ? And why are so many people getting wrong answers. Even my grade 5 brother got the correct answer. U people should stop wasting time here and do something productive.
I got 14, how did anyone get 16?
If you assign by object type rather than specific fruit counts, you can get 16.
Basically, if you use the symbols (apples) (bananas) and (coconuts) without actually counting the individual objects, you get (apples) = 10, (bananas) = 4 and (coconuts) = 2; add them up and you get 16.
It’s basically a question of how the symbols are assigned.
14
Technically, since coconuts have the value of 2, and there is only one half of them, then the value of coconuts in the end will only have a value of 1. There are 3 bananas of the original 4, which gave the banana a value of 4, which mean it is 3 quarters of it’s original value. Add it all together with the value of the apple which is 10, gives this: 1 + 10 + 3/4 = 11.75
but 4 bananas = 4, therefore 4/4 = 1AND each banana is worth 1.
The answer is so simple.
1 apple, half a coconut and 3 bananas
The artisinal fruit basket.
i love all the people who give them selves pats on the back and shame everyone else who got it wrong. bravo gentlemen, you are good boys, well done. now your ego is stroked, don’t be so narrow minded.
So ive decided to revise my answer from before and the only logical conclusion is that the answer is
any real or imaginary number
Let me explain, people start of thinking that the bunches of bananas are all equal so they get 15, but thats wrong because there are only 3 bananas in the equation, so they foolishly think that it is 14 but thats still wrong, because you cant assume that each banana in the bunch is equal to 1.
In fact you can only assume that 4 of the bananas = 4, the first 3 bananas from bottom to top could be worth 4, while the last banana at the top could be worth 0, or the first 3 bananas could be worth 4000004, and the last banana could be worth -4000000. So we just dont know
but people always ignore the coconuts, why do they ignore them, oh god why?
You can clearly see that the two ‘halves’ of the coconuts are not the same, and therefore we can determine that although together they can add up to 2, they can be any 2 numbers that can add up to 2 like -infinity = (infinity+2), just like the bananas
but who said that 4 bananas in a bunch was a plus operation, it could be a multiplication or a division, or even several combinations of mathematical operators which makes solving the equation even harder.
Or the plus symbol could mean something different when applied to apples. Any programmer with OO experience can tell you that the meaning of an operator is dependent on the type of the object.
For example, add one million apples and the result will be some number of apples and a quantity of apple sauce. 🙂
I dont know about this; it doesn’t seem rigorous enough. how do we know that foreground coconut is the same value as background coconut?
Thanks, Lifehacker! I’ve seen these annoying 95% people can’t solve this problem posts on Facebook, and sure, they are annoying. Now, I get to see the same puzzle on a new and different website. You know, it just makes the day worthwhile! 14.
Answer : 14