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April 13, 2006 by Vurdlak | Share  

Try to figure this one out! How is it possible that two is equal to one, when we all know that that isn’t true. Try to spot the mistake one of the twins made!

Math Optical Illusion

Comments

120 Responses
  1. Anonymous says:

    WOW….
    barring the possibility that there are little kids posting…

    if you are an adult and have gone through the education system and don’t understand the simple math like the connection between a=b and a^2=a*b you shouldn’t be allowed to have kids.

    Sorry about being harsh, because its fine to be stumped by this, its not ok to not know basic elementary school math

  2. Anonymous says:

    so really the solution is 2/0 = 1/0 ?

    And that is true…

    So the real “mistake” is saying that 2/0 = 2 and that 1/0 = 1….

    And if anyone reads this far down, get a f’in life

  3. Anonymous says:

    this is not an optical illusion,they just try to confuse you and check if you at lest remmember 6grade maths.everything that’s below line 3 is not right:
    (a+b)(a-b) will never equale the statement b(a-b)
    always (a+b)(a-b)=a2+b2

  4. Sandy says:

    There is a missing condition fot divison (as you all mentioned)
    -> a-b /= 0 =>
    -> a /= b
    which it isn't, there for you can't

  5. Andrew says:

    the mistake is in the transition from the fourth to the fifth line whereby the (a-b) on both sides is ‘cancelled’. Remembering that anything divided by 0 is undefined, divividing both sides by a-b which is really zero simply means that undefined = undefined. WOOP DE DOO. =.= , back to the drawing board.

  6. Anonymous says:

    wow some of u r in 8th grade and u cant even figure this out… and some of you have no humour, some of you think it’s a set of unrelated equations… i found the error when i was in 6th grade! and the error is that you cant divide by zero.

  7. Anonymous says:

    (a+b)=b
    not true^^^
    got me for a minute tho, hadda think it throughht
    and comment #1… (mark)
    are you saying 8th grade math is easy
    cause im in 8th grade, and im taking an advanced course, and its still hard

  8. BOBOBOBO says:

    it should come out to be 0=0
    because (a+b)(a-b)=b(a-b) equals zero
    and 2a=a which is the same as 0+0=0
    should in fact be
    0=0

  9. smartiepants says:

    so the only way the whole equation..or however they are trying to figure this out works is to ultimately say a and b equal zero. so every equation they wrote satisfys that. so 2a=a –> 2(0)=0! and (a+b)=b –> (0+0)=0!

    so the only mistake they made is at the end when they assumed that a and b were 1.

    so in lines 4 and 5 to say that they were dividing by zero so that doesn't work is stupid because they were writting random equations not following steps to get to the next problem duh :P

  10. Anonymous says:

    You can divide by zero in calculus though with L’Hospitals rule, ha ha

  11. Callum Teh Robertson says:

    They missed out the parameters – "a=b=1" (or if you prefer "a=1", "b=12)

    Need to state what a & b are ;) otherwise it is technically correct and then the last line is also wrong… you cant just assume 'a' is equal to one – needs to be stated… yes, im a uni student with nothing better to do ;)

  12. Eluem says:

    “this is not an optical illusion,they just try to confuse you and check if you at lest remmember 6grade maths.everything that’s below line 3 is not right:
    (a+b)(a-b) will never equale the statement b(a-b)
    always (a+b)(a-b)=a2+b2″

    First of all this must be corrected:
    “always (a+b)(a-b)=a2+b2″
    should read:
    “always (a+b)(a-b)=a^2-b^2″

    In this situation, this isn’t the error.
    b(a-b) is equal to ab-b^2 and since a=b this could also read a^2-b^2.

    The real error is as it has been said before, when they divide by zero by trying to cancel by dividing the (a-b) over since a=b, a-b = 0. You cannot divide by zero.

  13. qqqq says:

    if a=b , then a and b are equal, meaning that THEY ARE THE SAME NUMBER!
    therefore, the answer cant be 2=1

  14. Samantha says:

    Don’t blame me for not getting this i’m still in primary school…(age 11) tho some of my classmates have that a – b = ? some sort of things…

  15. A Math Major says:

    Sigh… the answer, which very few people have correct, is that you cannot divide by 0. ALL of the math here is sound, EXCEPT that one of the steps is not reversible (divide by 0). That is in going from line 4 to 5. If you notice, lines 1-4 are all true as long as a = b, which was the premise. Starting at line 5, after the division by 0, everything is only correct if a = b = 0, which was not a stated condition.

  16. ben says:

    (a+b)(a-b)=b(a-b) ….. isnt tht bit rong?

  17. Ms.Observant says:

    them dudes try devide by zero. Tards. I IS IN 8TH GRADE AND ME FIND ANTSA! NO ZERO DIVISION PPL!

  18. anonymous says:

    It is because they divided by a-b in the 4th step and because a=b that means they divided by zero, which gets UNDEFINED not any real answer. Duh!

  19. Balli says:

    It is not given that a=b=1. That is the only thing that is wrong. And then there is the problem that the only solution is that a=b=0 so you are dividing with 0 which is a problem as the answer infinite.

  20. dido1983 says:

    Besides, 2a=a equals to 2a-a=0 a=0, not to 2=1.

    If two dollars have the same value as one dollar, then those dollars are FAKE!

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