It can be tricky to convert a large number of coins into the proper dollar amount. Take this post for example, when someone calculated that saving a quarter a day for an entire year would total to $9,125. However, that would be incorrect- but lucky for us, we live in the 20th century and have access to thousands of users to help us calculate correctly. Users quickly responded with 3 answers:

• $25 a day for a year will get you there though
• Or a quarter a day for 100 years
• It will get you 9,125 cents though

Another thing people seem to have an issue with throughout the years is calculating age. This one seems a bit silly on where this user got confused, but one commenter provided a guess about where the calculations could’ve gone wrong.

User, gforcetheone, writes, “My guess would be that the guy is born in ’92 and assumed people born in 2000 are 8 years older than him. Therefore 28+8=36″.

Now, this post goes all over the map with what math was correct and was incorrect. Unfortunately for the person who commented trying to correct the post’s conversion, it turns out it was their own conversion that is wrong. According to Reference.com, they report one mile is indeed longer than a kilometer and the correct conversion is one mile is equal to 1.609 kilometers.

This next one is an interesting take on the proportions of a centaur. Although many refer to centaurs as being half man and half horse, if compared to a mermaid that is half human and half fish, the proportions do not match up. The graph then demonstrates that if the proportions were accurate to half and half the centaur would have a difficult time staying upright!

Here we go with incorrect calculations of ages to years again. This time someone entirely missed the fact that 80 years from 2020 would only be 2100 and not 3000. Although we can’t blame them- at first glance the calculations look close to being correct but not quite.

If you’ve never completed a long road trip driving in a vehicle, then miles can seem much smaller at first glance. But once on the road, you truly realize just how long miles are.

For one user, they posted they believed they could easily drive 2,000 miles in a day. Another user was quick to correct them pointing out this would take, without stopping, over 26 hours! And if you’ve ever been on a long drive, there can be a lot of stops and rest points to get to the destination safely.

One user posted their quick trick to only paying $10 on $30 worth of groceries. What’s the quick trick you ask? Well, their trick is to pay $20 with cash and charge $10 to debit then hit $20 cashback. But one thing they aren’t taking into account is that now their card will be charged $30 and they just took another $20 out…

Sometimes it can take a village to solve a math problem. That is what we find with this post when a user tries to solve 18 minus 9. Unfortunately, it seems as though the community also had a hard time trying to figure this one out. But we still appreciate the effort.

Sometimes we can send the cheesiest text messages to the ones we love. Even when those text messages are completely wrong mathematically! Such as this text message exchange, for example, where they tell their significant other that “without you, 60 minutes feels like one hour” which is precisely how long an hour is.

Sometimes it seems like a new solution can make all the difference. Take this anonymous user’s idea, for example, of wondering why bulletproof vests aren’t made of diamond, which is the hardest material. The reason can be answered with simple math conversions, and it is because it would be way too heavy.

How does one take advantage of this special? One side states 4 Kroger Buns for the price of $5, however, the sign immediately to the left limits customers to a 3 bread limit. Deeming this deal impossible.

This one is just misleading…One side the poster reads 50% off and on the other side? It shows the newly marked down price of $24.99 to $22.50 which is clearly not 50% off.

Instead, it is approximately 10% off. We hope it was either a typo and they meant to put the new price at $12.50 or they are offering 50% off the $22.50

Now this one just seems silly. One user posted on a forum page asking the question if the minimum age to work at Target is 16 and they are 20, will they not be hired because they’ve exceeded the age limit? Another user could only manage to comment back an answer to their question which was to check with management. Sometimes we have to learn the hard way.

Some people get really excited when the seconds, minutes, hours, days, and years all match up which can sometimes be a rare lifetime experience. However, this one just so happens once a day for the whole year of 2020. Only 2/20/2020 20:20:20.200 will go by once.

This poor shopper thought they bought the wrong numbers for their house. Instead of buying 45, they bought 54…if only they switched around the numbers they would see they purchased correctly. However, instead, they took to Facebook marketplace to sell their metal numbers for only $5.

Many of us know that sometimes the news and other social media posts can overestimate the numbers. In this case, we have Fox reporting on Hurricane Florence in North Carolina, estimating more than 500 million without power…but only 10.27 million are recorded in 2017 to have residency there. The population as of now according to Yahoo search has risen to 10.49 million.

It’s all in the first sentence for this one as they simply put “I don’t get it”… Although it would be amazing for us all to receive 3 million dollars each like this user believes, unfortunately the correct calculations would leave us with $3 each.

When someone tried to help them, this user refused to believe simply stating “that’s 3 times as many million” as we stated at the beginning of this slideshow math can be tricky.

Calculating age gaps properly can be complicated sometimes. Take this post for example when a user shares that a friend of his is 56 dating a 28-year-old which is a 28 year age gap. Which is half his age at 56…this is what seems to trip up a commenter who thinks at 80 she’ll be 40. At 80 she’ll be 28 years younger which is 52.

If you’ve ever taken a math class then you know pie equals 3.1415926535… However, in this math activity worksheet, it seems as though they’ve changed it to equal five. Some commenters found a possible resolution for why they could’ve done this Ojanican writes,

“I mean it’s not, I agree that this is kinda weird and I’m not quite sure why they picked 5 specifically. But natural units exist.

This was also probably done to show the process of the equation in a simple way for people learning about it for the first time.”

Sometimes the most expensive things in life are free. Take this post for example where a restaurant offered a Sunday lunch deal with a free plate that costs an extra $10. Someone offered a possible explanation that maybe this was used to encourage people to bring their own plates to try and produce less waste.

When one VP tried to post an encouraging message, a lot of mathematicians on the web were confused with the math they did to get a 365% increase. Many commentators go back and forth to whether this VP was doing linear or compound growth or if it was simply just an encouraging post. Luckily, a user by the name of KingBeefyMollusk helped us out with what the equation and the correct answer would look like,

“(x) = a(1+r)^t

a = initial amount

r = rate of increase

t = time

If you start at 100%, and increase by 1% every day for 365 days, the formula is:

f(x) = 1.00(1+0.01)³⁶⁵

simplified into:

f(x) = 1.01³⁶⁵

Which equals about 37.78, which equals 3778%, a bit more than 365% I think.”

Sometimes, even the computer glitches with calculating numbers. Take this grill for example whose original price was $299.99 and marked down to be supposedly saving $65.00 with the new price being $324.99. One user believes that they just transposed the 3 and the 2 since 299 minus 65 would equal 234

As we’ve stated multiple times now, math can be tricky. That’s why we are taught over and over again tricks such as PEMDAS to help us. Which would’ve really helped this user when questioning if they could trust their calculator. Using PEMDAS the equation would’ve looked like,

10+(10÷2) = 15. 10+5 = 15

Facebook marketplace is a unique place to find great deals. Such as this one where the seller offers two options: purchase together for $90 or separately for $40 each. Many soon realized that purchasing individually would actually be $10 cheaper!

If you don’t know or don’t remember the Pythagorean theorem it is: a 2 + b 2 = c 2. The theorem is that the square of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. One user, nameless_33, points out, “The worst part is just looking at the image you can tell it is incorrect; the hypotenuse sides are clearly longer, lol”

Once more we have a complex math conversion on how 190 votes split evenly into 50/50. Two users commented on where this math conversion became complicated,

“Reverse: they are commenting on the improbable nature that 190 votes would end up balancing out evenly.” – poke0003

“The more votes there are, the more likely it is that they end up balanced because the event of somebody picking the first option is as probable as the event of somebody picking the second option.” – r-ShadowNinja

Another factor of mathematics many struggle with is calculating percentages and understanding how they work. Take this article for example, where WebMD reports that according to the CDC only 31% of men and 65% of women wash their hands after using the restroom, which is when one user makes the mistake that it is equal to 96% in total. One user, Kellidra, explains why you don’t add the two separate groups together,

“Wait… what? Am I missing something? So 31% of men wash their hands, so 69% don’t. 31+69=100. 65% of women wash their hands, so then 35% don’t. 65+35=100.

You don’t add a percentage of two separate groups together to find the total of a population. That’d be like saying, “13% of that wall is blue, and 86% of the other wall is blue.” Well, together that’s 99%, but they’re also two different walls so what does adding them together achieve?”

Then again, some struggle to understand how the multiplication of zero works. No matter if the zero is before or after the multiplication sign the answer will always equal zero. For some of us, learning math ins and outs of mathematics takes more time than others.

Then we have the confusion when it comes to calculating correctly going from millions to a billion. A famous Tik Toker, Addison Rae, documents this struggle when she tweeted once she made it to 4 million follows that she was only 96 million away from 1 billion. However, one commenter pointed out that she was making a joke about a time where she got this question wrong once before,

“The question where she answered that one billion is one hundred times one million. So yeah, it’s a joke reference to her own identical math error that she made in a YouTube video two days ago” – bheaans

Pie graphs and bar charts are tools that are used to explain data visually. Sometimes, depending on the data, it is better to use than the other take this news coverage of the biggest worries of COVID-19. One user, -0-O-, proves this in their comment writing,

“Shouldn’t have used a pie chart, but I believe they mean:

48% of respondents included “getting it” in their top worries.

62% included “family getting it” in their top worries.

etc.

It doesn’t need to be capped at 100%, because you’re not adding them up like you would if people only had one option each.”

For people who are aware of fractions and how they coordinate to sizing they would immediately realize that they would be getting more for less with the 1/3 option. When converting the fractions into decimals 1/4 comes out to 0.25 and 1/3 comes out to 0.333. Our teachers weren’t lying when they reiterated time after time that math is used in our daily lives in everything.

Here we have another misprinted sign. That was close enough for those who were arranging the sign to just put it up anyway. One user commented on the post making an interesting point saying,

“It is not important how much the item costs. It is important how much do you save” – ML

Another example of how math can be applied and used in anything and everything. We have one user use the equation of E = mc² to make a point. However, someone is quick to correct him and from there the comments go on and on of correcting the next person.

“Agreed. It would be clearer to use brackets, but everyone knows that E = mc² means E = m(c)²
So yeah, the first guy in the picture is fine with what he said.” – KruxOfficial

“No, (thic)^2 would be thicthic, but thic^2 is, in fact thicc” – Zuper Zeus

Sometimes in math class you would stumble upon trick problems in your homework or assignments. But sometimes those trick problems were just incorrect or accidental. Just like we assume this one is or maybe a trick question hidden for possible bonus points.

Even sometimes Standford gets math problems wrong too as shown in this ad they put in a magazine. Many were quick to call out the school as they commented on this post.

“Oh my god, they didn’t even try” – Gonomed

“They’re.. just writing symbols down” – Shitty-Coriolis

Users were quickly confused by the calories and grams listed on the cookie package. The nutrition facts note that 1 cookie is 35 grams, which totals to about 150 calories per cookie. Two users give what could be possible explanations for this problem.

“Am I missing something here? If nutrition facts round their numbers (which I believe the creators of the labels are allowed to do), then this makes sense right? E.g. if one cookie is actually 154 calories, you can claim it’s 150 calories, but the whole package would contain 308 which can round to 310. Same for like 1.6g of fiber rounding to 2g then 3g respectively.” – shaitani

“Or the wrapper has 10 calories” – wasthatitthen

Sometimes people post things just to troll other users. Just like this one user posting a math problem they solved. When someone went to correct them they noticed one important detail…the users name: I_AM_ALWAYS_WRONG_

There is a seemingly endless supply of those of us trying to calculate ages to years. Here we have another example of people thinking about how old kids born in 2000 would be today. Seems they needed to let this shower thought sink in a little bit longer.

Sometimes the math errors are our fault and sometimes it is due to external factors making it seem so. Just like this article for example, as it suggests that the DailyMail is stating one in four is equal to most. However, as commentators began reading the article, it became clear that it may have just been a poorly worded search engine snippet.

Sometimes it’s the math that is wrong and sometimes it’s the way visual aids are drawn. Take this case for example- the math is correct but the pie graph is wrong. Someone may have accidentally taken a bite out of this pie before they put it on air!

Another post that the user should’ve let sink in a little longer before posting. This time the user states that if you put a dime in a piggy bank twice a day for two years you would have over $336,000. It would be a sad day when this person finds out after two years they are left with only $146.

Even BBC has their own struggles with math within their day to day use. Take this article for example that they posted about the top 20 autumn recipes and then directly below the title it only lists 19 recipes. One user, Lord Mysticlaw, suggests a possibility for this mistake stating, “One recipe is so good it counted twice.”

Calculating age can be hard for some people and some of us just go with the answer that seems correct at first. For one user, when they created their account used their age at the time as their username. When it came time for them to be questioned about it they stated that they created this username three years ago and are now 17. Even after hearing that someone still took the information and concluded that 3 years ago this user was only 11…

Like we stated previously many struggles with going from millions to billions to trillions. The more zeros may be the more rooms for error? Two users take the time to explain where Kevin McCullough’s math could have gone wrong,

“Also, it’s 4.3 trillion over 10 years, so in reality “$1.3k per person per year” is less dishonest. But even still, unless someone includes information about which tax brackets are affected how much, this is just an appeal to emotion and has little to do with math.” – dustinechos

“Plus not everyone is taxed equally (at least that’s how it should be). Percentages would be saying a helluva lot more, especially when some people might be paying half a million in taxes and others only a hundred.” – John-Smith12

Even the U.K. struggles with documenting graphs correctly to match the numbers. Here is a graph that is documenting with a range of varying numbers for A-level results throughout the years. Unfortunately, the numbers for the years are documented improperly to match their quantity.

Here we have another sign selling a rollback price that was somehow messed up. For this one, the price was $9 and as they list the rollback the sign states you’ll be saving $1 on the new price of $11.47. However, if you take a moment to process you’d quickly realize just how wrong the math was on this “rollback” item.

As we saw earlier we noticed just how cheesy are text messages of love can be to our significant others or loved ones. Most times they are just meant to be cheesy love sayings but not for this user who took it seriously and used math to calculate this person’s love. Which loving someone to the moon and back only estimates to about 19 hours worth of love.

Calculating a salary per month to per year while taking into account the percentages that may be taken out can get complicated. Here we have an example of two users trying to calculate the amount another player makes which makes other users chime in to correctly estimate the income.

“I don’t know how much of a cut Twitch takes, but with 200K subscribers there would be ~$800,000 prior to Twitch getting their share. A month.” – twitchinstereo

“I believe he meant that the $4 is what Ninja gets on avg I believe, since the subs cost $5/$10/$25 depending on the tier and it’s usually 60/40 with Twitch. Meaning that he’s keeping a full $800k a month, which is nearly an 8 figure annual salary.” – BestInDaGame

As we found out earlier calories are typically rounded. But until you know this information the labeling on boxes can seem to be wildly incorrect at first. Just as this box of Butterfingers shows which says 25 calories per piece then below stating 140 calories per 6 pieces. One user, mizboring, explains the mathematics of this Butterfingers box,

“This is pretty easily explained by rounding. Calories are typically rounded to the nearest multiple of five for the purpose of labeling.

If one piece has, for example, 23 calories, they would round to 25. Then six pieces have 138 calories, which gets rounded to 140.”

Sometimes it’s better to let the numbers explain their quantity without using visual aids since sometimes they misrepresent the data if not shown correctly. Here they incorrectly show the percentage of 25 and then hashtag #letthatsinkin. Another example of someone who should’ve let the math sink in first before posting.

If you are smart you can get the best deal out of this card deal for the cheapest price. Such as purchasing two sets of the 3 cards, probably would have to do separate payments, to get in total 10 cards. Math can be extremely helpful when getting the best bang for your buck.

For one passenger about their Boeing flight from Seattle to Denver they were a bit startled to see the total time it would take. When the plane turned out the screens for the passengers to track the flight or watch movies one passenger took notice of the total time it would take stated: 135 hours and 2 minutes. Talk about taking the scenic route!

We’ve learned a lot about math by clicking through this slideshow. Once again we get to the point of how difficult it can be when making accurate pie charts. For this pie chart, there are a few things wrong, the sizing is wrong documenting the music catalog to look at least 3x the size when it’s only worth like 1.12x the amount, as well as, when you add it all up it is actually more than 1.3 billion.

Since COVID-19 was declared a world pandemic throughout this past year many businesses big and small have suffered the effects of millions staying home. One user tried to estimate what a big company such as Disney’s losses may be. Although these calculations don’t even take into account concession stands, gift shop sales, parking, etc.

Unfortunately, this new math equation will not get you the correct numbers as is shown in this post. Not only would the numbers be incorrect but this person stated that 4 mph is a hearty walked speed. Many users were quick to point out that this is incorrect writing,

“Even assuming this person made any sense, calling 4mph “a hearty walking speed” is a bit of a stretch. 3 to 3.5 mph is pretty much a jog, 5mph is basically running for most people (not taking into account leg length, for example)” – Gonomed

“3.6km/h is roughly a walking pace. 4mph is way higher.” – Dilka30003

For many assignments and especially on tests, many teachers or professors will give trick answers to make sure you are paying attention and reading the full question. Which can sometimes mean if they can attempt tricks then if we don’t have the correct answer to the problem attempt to make up a solution. Just as this student did writing that, “someone caught the ladder before it fell so there was no need to find the solution.”

As technology advances over time sometimes what may have been mathematically true before now much change. Such as this image that states that the best sound experience in the theater is to sit 2/3 of the way back. However, one user comments the truth of the updated sound systems and speakers,

“The truth of this is that audio engineers will mix from a point that forms an equilateral triangle with the main speakers. This is especially important with stereo (2 channel, left-right) mixes. Not nearly is important in surround sound mixes with a center channel. Any modern theater has at least 5.1 surround, so seats outside of the sweet spot aren’t really that bad these days. Hope this helps someone.” – spudman238

Vox shared a youtube video stating that back then movies used to be only 15 minutes long. Approximating that about 1/900th of an Avengers movie now which makes the calculations of getting to 2 hours incorrect. However, a few commentators believed it could be a use of exaggerating to make a point and mainly to get people talking.

Sometimes people will purchase multiples of things just to get the quick deal. One store may have realized this when they put the kit-kats on sale for 2 for $3.00. However, they were already selling the kit-kats individually for $1.49 which if you purchased two would total to $2.98.

Here we have another example of what we hope is an accidental typo leading to a mathematical error. If that is the case they may have either meant to write 1.515 cashback or most likely just 1.5 % cashback. Either way, we are sure they fixed this error fairly quickly.

For this ad they market they give 10% off cleanings 1 through 5 for a total of 50% off cleanings. Unfortunately that is not how percentages work. But it was a good effort to catch the potential new clients!

The more you try to solve this mathematical error the more your brain may begin to hurt. When trying to find the best value for your dollar with these options is quite confusing. Some users in the comments mentioned one may include shipping costs while the other is pickup only.

For advertisements sometimes when creating one, especially when they are trying to sell the buyer something they create an ad hoping many won’t do the math. Luckily for us, some users in the comments tried to run these numbers,

“I think it’s a valid strategy, you will choose 3 month or 2 month and think that you just tricked them, but in reality, you just bought a plan from them. Like a guy selling watermelons 1 for 5, 3 for 17, you go and buy 3 watermelons one by one, and spend “just” 15, but watermelon guy just sold 3 watermelons.” – porcomaster

“Yep, I know that 2 months is the best deal, but 3 month deal is not too much more, and might be worth for convenience

1 month is 20.000 each month

2 month is 15.000 each month

3 month is 16.667 each month

4 month is 20.000 each month

3 month is not that far off 2 month, it might be a good deal for convenience alone.

Edit: you also have the SIM card fee, that is free now, but this promotion may not be available 2 months from now, and 3 months would be best deal. If you are not sure if this deal will be available.” – porcomaster

Again we have another example of just how tricky it is to calculate going from millions to billions to trillions. As well as, the terminology used can be interchangeably correct in various ways. In this sense, we have here a user, andrewsad1, commenting points out, “Technically a trillionaire is a multi-millionaire, just a lot of millions”

Many quickly discovered this mathematical error was due to another typo. The nutritional facts list that per 6 crackers there are 19 grams but also lists there are 25 grams of potassium with a daily value of 1%. As they double-checked the math they soon realized the 25 grams of Potassium was supposed to be listed as milligrams.

Again we see the struggle with calculating correct percentages. Commentators went back and forth to question what the actual percentage the original post was missing. Many settled that this post was missing the rest of the percentage which is 0.09%.

If you glance at this account estimate quickly it may seem as though nothing is wrong. However, after further inspection, you’ll notice that although both sides total to be the same thing, but in the new month they are missing something which makes the math incorrect. What they are missing in the new monthly (Sep 1 – Sep 30) is the monthly changes and credits that total to $10.

Here we have another encounter with a tricky listing of nutritional facts. Here they list 70 calories per serving but 130 calories per 2 slices which obviously does not add up correctly. But as we now know for nutritional facts they can round up which explains why the numbers do not always match.

As we saw earlier in the slideshow even news channels can get the numbers wrong. This includes CNN! Writing 50,0000 instead of the correct 500,000 or just 50,000 depending on if they meant to add the extra zero or not.

Sometimes when documenting your experience it can be a tactic to write it out in a way that exaggerates the number. Such as this person did writing they have more than 150,000 hours of training athletes which calculates to about 17 years. One user, Aweshade9, broke down the specifics of the years to hours for us,

“yeah but hes not training 24/7, assuming 8 hours a day every day its 51.3 years. If he had trained multiple people at the same time (like say a full basketball, football, or track team) then he, with some reasonable doubt, could have done this in 10 or 15 years

edit: the multiple trainees would drastically lower the amount (a basketball team is 15 people, so it would only take 4ish years to get 150000 at 8hr/day). however factoring in weekends and vacations, and not 8 hr/day, a full sports team would probably take around 10-15 years”

Again, we have the misrepresentation of an accurate Pythagorean theorem. Here we have it applied to safely practicing social distancing. Of course, many tried to solve how they came to this conclusion in the comments,

“4 people are standing in a square. Each person is 6 feet away from the person on the opposite corner of the square.

What is the distance between any two people not on opposite corners?

Let the horizontal or vertical distance between each person = x feet

x² + x² = 6²

2x² = 36

x² = 18

x = 3 √(2)” – shinjury

“Depends if you’re reading it as 6ft radiating from the centre, or if it’s 6ft away from each person on opposite corners.” – tuturuatu

As we saw previously sometimes people can get confused that anything multiplied by zero will always equal zero. Just as this person tried to offend another user by saying their IQ is zero and they at least have an IQ that is 500 times bigger than that. Fortunately the other knows this simple math trick that anything multiplied by zero is still zero.

Calculating tips is not easy for many people since it includes moving decimals, converting numbers into percentages, etc. That’s why many restaurants have made it easier by simply adding the equation at the bottom of the receipt. But for one lady Beth, she couldn’t help but share her “bad” experience online, however, it was her math that was off.

Another thing people seem to have a hard time calculating is years, decades, and even centuries. Take this post for example where a user made a Happy News Years post excited that they figured out they lived through 19 decades. However, one decade is equal to 10 years.

As we’ve seen the news and other acclaimed sources get their math wrong, we’ve even seen our President of the United States struggle with fractions. We see an example of this when President Donald Trump tweeted for the 1/100th time. One user gave the benefit of the doubt that maybe he was using voice text and that it should’ve read “for the 100th time”, and they’re probably right, but it doesn’t make it any less funny!