8 − 4) = −1
Why Do Some People Get 6?
The confusion usually comes from doing the subtraction too early.
Someone might look at the first part and calculate:
7 − 2 = 5
Then continue from there and arrive at another number.
But multiplication has priority over subtraction. Once the parentheses have been solved, 2 × 4 must be calculated before subtracting it from 7.
This is the basic principle behind PEMDAS, commonly taught as:
- P — Parentheses
- E — Exponents
- M — Multiplication
- D — Division
- A — Addition
- S — Subtraction
Multiplication and division are handled before addition and subtraction when they appear at the same level of the expression.
Why These Puzzles Go Viral
What makes these puzzles so entertaining is that the equation looks almost too easy to get wrong.
People see familiar numbers and immediately start calculating in their heads. That confidence can make it easy to overlook a small but important mathematical rule.
