While math is something most people don’t seem to like, it is something a lot of people do quite well in. There are tons of math puzzles circling the web and while simple looking, some are much more complex than we want to admit.

I recently came across a math puzzle that as it seems tons of people could not figure out. That being said, with just a little bit of calculating the answer is quite simple. Have you ever came across a problem that took you forever to figure out but once you got things right the answer seemed to have been under your nose the whole time? This was and is one of those problems.

Do you think you can figure it out? Take a look below and give it some thought. Do not rush things and really allow at least a couple minutes of thinking before moving forward. Scrolling too quickly might reveal how much more thought you should have put into things.

As you can see, it goes from 18 to 10 and then to 6 and 4 leaving you to fill in the last slot. It might appear that one way is the correct way to solve this one but most people are overlooking the right way somehow. What do you think the answer is?

Solution

Well, if you guessed the answer was 3 then you guess correctly. The number 3 is obtained by cutting the number you’re subtracting from each in half as you move down the line. Sure, you might start out subtracting 8 but that doesn’t carry.

Things are broken down as follows:

18-8=10, 10-4=6, 6-2=4, and of course, 4-1=3.

Did you answer correctly or did you cheat? To go over more missing number questions and puzzles feel free to check out the video below. When it comes to math problems these are some of my favorites. How many of these can you get right?