Math Arguments

Poor Alex Bellos

Normally, I'm glad when the media talks about math, even if it is simply the latest "Super-Hard problem from Asia that All of Us Stupid American Adults and Brits Won't be Able to Solve but Their 8 Year-old Do Routinely."

Throw in "I gave it to a mathematician and he couldn't solve it either" and you've got an instant viral hit, apparently.

All right, rant over.




What's the error?

Oh, and solve it if you want, too. It's not really that hard. Further questions:

• Which blanks CANNOT have a prime number in them?


• Which blanks COULD have certain prime numbers?


• Which blanks essentially force this problem to be non-unique?

No snarky notes about the description of the Order of Operations!

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