A graphic artist is testing everyone’s knowledge of algebra and spot-the-difference skills with a pictograph math problem that assigns numbers to different fruits. Gergely Dudás, of Hungary Budapest, ...

You don’t have to be a math whiz to know that 4 - 2 + 1 equals 3. Yet I was working with several students recently who said it equals 1. And it wasn’t their fault. Nor was it their teacher’s fault.

At first glance, the problem appears easy enough. But while many users on X, formerly Twitter, quickly chimed in with answers, only a small number got it right - because only they remembered to apply ...