Don’t be fooled by the apparent simplicity of this maths puzzle as it’s trickier than you might think.
Keeping your brain in shape is just as vital as maintaining physical fitness, and what better way to do so than with challenging puzzles that get the mental cogs turning?
Brainteasers are not only fun but also beneficial for enhancing memory, alleviating stress and improving motor skills.
Engaging with a few each day could do wonders for your cognitive health. This particular maths conundrum may seem straightforward at first glance, but there’s a subtle twist that ensnares most people.
The puzzle has been spreading like wildfire across the internet as people strive to crack it without succumbing to the common error. Can you work it out?
The riddle was posted on TikTok by Jennie and Nick, a couple who frequently share brainteaser content on their channel. In their latest video, Nick poses a seemingly simple maths query to his wife: “What is half of 6 + 6?”
Jennie initially opted for the most obvious solution – six. She came to this number by adding six and six to make 12, then dividing by two, which takes her back to six. But Nick quickly informed her that this isn’t the right answer.
She then tried to halve the whole equation to give her 3 + 3, but this also took her to six, which Nick still claimed was not the correct solution. Frustrated, Jennie tried to switch tactics and thought outside the box for her next guess. She physically cut the sixes in half to give her two zeroes.
While her husband commended her for the “creative” solution, he still insisted that zero wasn’t correct either. The truth behind the puzzle is actually quite straightforward and doesn’t need any outside-the-box manipulation of the physical numbers.
Take a crack at the puzzle yourself, and then keep reading once you think you’ve got the answer.
Answer
The answer is nine. The question hinges on punctuation, a common tripwire because people often overlook the different possibilities of how the question could be framed.
What the puzzle ultimately asks is: “What is half of six, plus six?” Breaking this down, half of six is three, add six and voila, you land at nine. Put into a proper maths equation, the riddle would read: 6 / 2 + 6 = ?
Opinions were divided among those responding to the video. Some managed to deduce the cunningly simple nine, whereas others argued that Nick’s phrasing could legitimise an answer of just six.
One puzzled viewer suggested: “Word it better. This is just vague and impossible to discern. What is six halved plus six?” Another weighed in with logic: “Calculation rules apply to numbers, not words. So it can be 6 or 9.”
