Math is one of things people seem to either get or not – if you do, it’s still challenging, but something that you enjoy tackling, and if you don’t…well, those hours spent in math class or struggling with homework seem like endless torture.
This simple trick has been making the internet rounds, though, and it seems to many of us who fall into the latter camp that it’s something that could have been used to make our childhoods (and, fine, adulthoods) easier.
Most of us use calculators now to do things like percentages, and if I asked you to do 4% of 75 in your head, you’d probably just keep scrolling until I told you the answer. According to Ben here, though, there’s a super easy way to simplify percentages.
Not my way of going like, okay I can do 10% and 1% so maybe just do halfway between that minus a bit and voila 4%-ish!
No. “Maths whizz” Ben Stephens can help you get the actual answer, so hold onto your seats.
The answer is 3 – which is a lot easier when you’re trying to get 75% of 4 rather than 4% of 75.
Yes.
Image Credit: Twitter
“18% of 50 feels hard to calculate,” Ben wrote. “But 50% of 18 is a doddle, right?”
Because both answers are 9.
Truly.
While there were a few mathematicians out there living up to their reputations…
Image Credit: Twitter
Image Credit: Twitter
Most people were thrilled and amazed and all of the proper responses to such a trick.
This sounds like something everyone should ideally have known in high school but I’m today years old when I realized I can’t think in even basic math
— Sandhya Ramesh (@sandygrains) March 5, 2019
GGGAAAHHHHHHHHH EVERY TEACHER I EVER HAS FAILED ME, AND I DON’T MEAN MY GRADES
— The Power Principle (back in production) (@NewMutant) March 5, 2019
My calculator just blew up
— Nigel Daniel (@Nobbydaniel8) March 11, 2019
Whoa…I teach Maths at primary level and had never realised this.
50% blown away/50% going DOH! pic.twitter.com/4yhxgFSgDq— Magical Maths Notts (@MathsNotts) March 6, 2019
It is a rational equation, but not having thought about it in the first place…well let’s say I don’t feel as the most clever person in the room right now. ?
— Kamal DJAIDAOUI ???????? (@DjaidaouiKamal) March 8, 2019
Did you know how to do this? I sure didn’t, and now I feel like a maths whizz too!
Or a math whizz, as we say here in the States.
Either way.
