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28 June 2019, 17:23
A tweet about a maths sum has gone viral and, honestly, it will blow your mind.
Maths is having a moment right now and it's all because no one works out 27 plus 48 in the same way in their heads.
The internet is no stranger to bizarre viral trends. Over the course of the past few months alone, we've seen people take part in relationship ruining challenges, create ASMR versions of reality TV's most iconic fights and transform SpongeBob from a beloved cartoon into an iconic world-travelling meme. Social media is wild and we wouldn't have it any other way.
Now maths (yes, really maths) has broken the internet and the reason why will make you rethink everything.
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It all started earlier this week when Twitter user @Wparks91 tweeted the question: "What happens in your head when you do 27+48?". Pretty simple right? It may not be a sum with single digits but 27+48 is the kind of addition you learn in primary school. However, everyone does it in different ways and it wasn't long before the tweet caused so much controversy that it gained over 28,000 replies.
Some people do (20+40=60, 7+8=15, 60+15=75). So far so normal. Others do (27+50=77, 77-2=75) or (30+48=78, 78-3=75). Yeah. Rounding to the nearest 10 and working your way backwards really is a way of doing Maths. Of course, there are still other ways. One very popular reply is: "8+7 is 15, carry the 1. 4+2+1 is 7. 75." and "27-2 = 25, 48+2 = 50, 50+25 = 75" is commonplace too.
What happens in your head when you do 27+48?
— Walty Walt (@Wparks91) June 25, 2019
20+40 = 60
— ๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐ (@WICKEDWIZRD) June 26, 2019
7+8 = 15
60+15 = 75
8+7 is 15, carry the 1. 4+2+1 is 7. 75.
— Tiffani (@istylekinks) June 26, 2019
27+50-2=75
— Kervรฉ Villechaize (@OutsiderKervin) June 26, 2019
27 automatically becomes 30 for me, so that I'm adding a round number to the not-so-round one. That way it's just 30 + 48. And removing 3 is easy.
— Sometimes funny (@ZTVComedyNews) June 27, 2019
27 - 2 = 25
— ๐๐๐ โฝ (@venusmartian) June 26, 2019
48 + 2 = 50
50 + 25 = 75
I'm a 7+48+20 type of guy
— DJ (@priusCSGO) June 26, 2019
In the words of Dewey Finn, in the School of Rock, "Math is a wonderful thing. Math is a wonderful thing. Now get off your ath let's do some math. Math, math, math, math, math."
Now, you've processed that, how do you write an 'x'?