Martin Lewis shares maths homework question - and it leaves the internet stumped

Money saving expert Martin Lewis took to Twitter to share a maths problem his daughter had been set by her school.

But it has left many of his followers disputing what the correct answer actually is.

He tweeted: ‘Just had an interesting chat with mini MSE while she was doing maths homework about what

‘5 + 6 x 4 =

‘Interesting to see how many people get it right.’

The lack of brackets involved in the equation left many of his followers confused.

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One person tweeted: ‘Where are the brackets….?’

Another added: ‘Without brackets it’s hard to know as there are possibly 2 possible answers.’

One wrote: ‘The question is badly written.’

A person tweeted: ‘Arghhhh why did they change how you do maths.’

One person argued: ‘I find it doesn't matter which way you approach these sums,as once you're an adult you will never encounter or need them again.’

While many of the responses had 44 as the answer, it is incorrect.

Martin Lewis explained: ‘29 is right. 44 is wrong.

‘Owt else you're very wrong.

‘It's due to the BIDMAS rule. The order you do calculations so Brackets, indices, division, multiplication, addition subtraction. So in this case you do 6 x 4 then add 5.’

Did you get it right? Let us know in the comments below.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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