40+ People That Need To Go Back To Algebra Class
For many students, few subjects in school could evoke as much despair as the one-word, panic-inducing topic called math. And for some, that fear never truly goes away. There are tons of people of all ages who struggle with math on a daily basis. Whether we like it or not, math is an integral (we won’t apologize for the bad pun) part of our lives, even if we only use the bare basics. But it seems like, with some people, even that’s too much to ask.
We’re not making fun of anyone who struggles with math, but there’s some humor to be found when people don’t even know how to use a calculator. Please have a look and practice some math so that you don’t end up appearing here on lists like these!
Last day of being a teenager
Let’s face it. Many of us face problems with fractions. They usually wind up having weird numbers combined with other weird numbers, but they are a necessary evil. That evil took hold of our friend over here who got it all mixed up.
Our guy tries to analyze the official end of his teenage years, which is fine, but he slipped up. Instead of saying that he now is a fifth of a century, he says that he is now a quarter of a century old. He is a few years off.
Wrong chart (red & yellow)
Don’t we all love charts? They make us look smarter than we really are (as long as we use them correctly,) and they make it seem as if we have our statistics skills down pat. Yet, this can backfire sometimes.
Even if the depicted numerical information is accurate, the chart is not properly represented. It graphically shows one-quarter of the budget instead of the one-third they are trying to convey. But still, that was close enough. We respect the effort.
Bloomberg ads
Ah, Bloomberg. People love to sound pretentious while taking a hit at the company. This is the case of Mekita Rivas, who struggles with basic divisions and companies investing large sums of money in publicity. Please, enjoy a good read.
We sincerely do not know what’s worse; The horrible mathematical operation she wrote out or the notion that she should randomly receive money from Bloomberg just because she exists. Maybe she should try a new, groundbreaking concept called “work”…
Its spelled tdmoney
A very commonplace error when it comes to math is trying to guess the year that you or somebody else will live in by the time they reach a certain age. Twitter user “Its (no apostrophe) spelled tdmoney” is no exception to the rule.
Our spidey sense tells us that a human being who is born in the year 2020 will be living in the year 2100 by the time they are eighty years old, not in the year 3000. Oh, well, “Its spelled tdmoney”… so we didn’t have high hopes for this one.
WebMD
WebMD is a website known to be a somewhat reliable site when your hypochondria strikes at 2 a.m. when you have a headache, and it leads you to believe you have brain cancer. They are also well versed in messing up statistics…
Twitter user @LydiaBurrell issued a complaint about the flawed statistics, alleging that they alter them in order to receive more clicks. That is, to receive more traffic on their websites. She didn’t count on the fact that it could have been a human error.
Walmart clearance
Walmart is a familiar company to those who like somewhat decent, quality products at relatively quite low prices. It is not a glamorous place to buy your clothes, but they do their job, which is more than enough for most people.
Some people in the staff seem not to understand the notion of “clearance discount prices,” as they raised the value instead of decreasing it. Maybe they got the numbers confused, and that is why we were blessed with this gem.
Expensive burritos
Most of us love Mexican food. We will take a guess and say that some of you do too. At least those of you who are into eating spicy stuff. Wanna see something spicy? Check out this incorrect discount price.
The only advice we could give you is that you buy the burritos separately. If you buy them together, they will be more expensive. Why? Because logic. Have this in mind the next time you pull up the drive through.
A century old
In this case, we are going to venture into the dwelling of washed-up wordsmiths and mistaken mathematicians. That place is obviously Twitter. In this case, the user is unknown, but the blunder is legendary and everlasting. Have a look for yourself.
Due to the nature of the comment, it is logical to assume that the person who did it is most likely a teenager or somebody in their early twenties. It is still not an excuse, but it would be somewhat more understandable.
Deposit 7 quarters
There is some alluring magic about being able to use self-operating machines. It is nobody but you and the machine, obviously. Something tells us that if you deposit the specified amount on the sign, it probably won’t work quite right…
The thing is that if you want to use the machine, and the cost is $2, you would need to insert 8 quarters instead of 7 that are specified in the sign. Be sure to have extra change with you! And, don’t believe everything you read.
My husband < Your husband
Other than fractions, people get signs wrong all the time. This is the case of the “<,” and “>” characters. This poor wife tries to compliment her husband, but something goes wrong along the way. She almost got away with the mistake.
Then, a hero comes to save the day by revealing in a comment that the wife used the signs wrong and that she had implied the opposite message than the one that she had tried to convey. Stuff happens…
Beethoven’s riddle
We will go ahead and name the following “Beethoven’s riddle.” There is a good reason why, and you are about to read it with your own eyes. Some people simply do not understand very well how music works. Ode to joy?
The thing is that it doesn’t matter how many musicians you have playing the piece. It will always take the same amount of time to play it regardless of whether it is one person playing or more. Maybe if they screw up the tempo…
“Smorstix” scam
The “Smorstix” is a product that consists of a stick that can be used to heat some marshmallows. This price can leave you either satisfied as a customer or not exactly. It all depends upon which deal you decide to take.
This store owner sells the sticks at different prices—one for 75 cents, two for 5, making the price-per-unit rise to $2.50. If we were you, we wouldn’t take the latter offer, as you would be losing some (sorry, a lot) cash in the process.
0.4 pounds
Weight-related math tasks can be “heavy.” Many people struggle when trying to solve these problems. This is particularly prevalent when trying to convert pounds to kilos. But this poor person has trouble converting pounds to pounds, believe it or not. Oh, boy…
This individual doesn’t seem to entertain the idea of the use of decimals. For those of you who are still questioning the statement, 0.4 pounds is not the same as 4 pounds. The former weight is lighter than the latter.
Well done, maths…
Something that most certainly induces terror within people’s psyche when it comes to the realm of maths is equations and formulas. There is something about them that we cannot quite put our finger on that makes people feel that way about them.
In this problem, the author expects the person to find the value of “b,” and also the same author automatically proceeds to give the value of “b” away in the same sentence. Talk about contradicting yourself, right? It doesn’t take a genius to understand this is messed up.
I’d redo your math
This situation is going to sound a lot like that Zoolander scene where he says something along the lines of, “What is this? A school for ants?” Well, this next one kind of takes the same route but with an unexpected ending.
What’s funny about this whole situation is that this person took the time to write (and most likely read before posting) this long message on Facebook without even letting us know that they were actually given more money in exchange.
318 million Lotto tickets
We want to make fun of this post we are about to show you below, but leaving all jokes aside, this person seems to have good intentions for everybody, so we’ll go easy on them. Maybe you will understand what we mean…
So, the thing is that the logic being applied here does not add up. And what’s even better is that the other person in the comments section did not even realize the flawed statement and proceeded to congratulate the the user.
“Take” 20% off
Whenever you head to a store where there are “discounts,” we can say that you would expect the prices to LOWER, not to rise. Well, our dear reader, that doesn’t happen in the store we are about to show.
What’s crazy is that it says that it is twenty percent off, but it is actually more expensive than before. Maybe they should get their math double checked just in case customers complain, or another option is to wait until the “discount” is over, which is also counterproductive.
A quarter a day ($9,125)
So, you will think that missing a comma or decimal is no big deal. “What could ever be the consequences?” You may be tempted to erroneously think otherwise. So, it can expose you to public ridicule in the best possible outcome.
The thing is that the person got the numbers right but misplaced the decimal. Hence, the actual number is $91.25 if you save a quarter a day for a whole year. Be careful next time, please, or you are in for a serious let down.
Math is my forte
What is worse than making a math error? It is making one and also making a grammatical error within a couple of threads. It gets funnier when the person believes that math is her forte. Thank you so very much, Reddit.
If you read closer, you will notice that the original poster posted an NSFW post on Reddit, which means that she is most likely not appreciated for her arithmetic endeavors on the platform. The funny thing is that she doesn’t even acknowledge the miscalculation.
45 not 54
So, we have a slight suspicion that this next person is trolling us all. But, we are still gonna go the extra mile and assume they are innocently unaware of the misinterpretation. Maybe the poster is not really recognizing it, right?
The solution for the problem lies before our eyes. All the original poster needs to do is just switch the places taken by the numbers, and BOOM! Problem solved. However, she feels like she is in a desperate situation. Message us for further life-solving, existence-changing suggestions.
100%+ fabric tag
Calculating percentages can be daunting. We can easily be convinced that the sum of many partial percentages will equal one hundred percent. This does not always happen, especially for this clothes manufacturer who got it all kinds of wrong here.
The thing is that if we add all of these percentages, the total sum will be more than one hundred. That can only mean that either that fabric is next-level futuristic material, or that they made a big ol’ mistake right there.
Circuit City clearance
Clearance sales really take the protagonist role on this post. The mathematical faux-pas they give birth to are legendary and hilarious. Here, we will show you another one that left us scratching our heads. Read at your own risk…
In case you didn’t do the math already, the money you would hypothetically save is $5, not $12 as it is stated. And the worst thing is that it is such a tempting game. It’s “Guitar Hero.” Why do these employees want to make it harder on themselves?
Not so smart machines
People make mistakes, and that is no news. But, we perceive, especially incorrectly, that machines always work in a clockwork fashion, waiting to perform in a top-notch way every time at the user’s whim. It doesn’t happen like that always, unfortunately.
Machines themselves don’t make mistakes, but the people who program them, and set them up do. Hence, when some scenarios appear, the machine is likely to perform badly if programmed in an improper way. But programming can be hard, so we don’t judge this one.
2+2 x 4
Another thing that throws off many people when they try to do arithmetical operations that involve many different operators is that they do not know how to put them together properly. What you are about to see is more than enough evidence.
We have one word for you (if it can even be considered one): PEMDAS. According to Wikipedia, it is the following: “Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication/Division, Addition/Subtraction.” That rule states the order in which these should be done. Thank us later.
Dr. Pepper Ten
There used to be era where people raved about the joys of diet soda. They were all the rage. Coke Zero, Pepsi, and others got on that train very quickly. Later, Dr. Pepper joined the party with its Ten variety. This was the can.
What makes the Dr. Pepper Ten so deceiving is that it says that you only get 10 calories from consuming it, but in reality, there are actually 20 calories, since the 10 calories are present within the 8 fl. oz. Wow, none of this makes sense.
Planet Fitness
As if Planet Fitness weren’t enough of a horrible place, so we’ve heard, the staff comes up with an “offer,” which in reality is very easy to refuse. Firsthand, it sounds somewhat promising, but if you do the math, you will see it is not.
If you actually do the math, you will realize that if you pay upfront, you end up paying more than if you paid every month because if you divide 199 times 18, you will see that it is close to $11 instead of the monthly $10.
AT&T
With so much competition being all over the place, the companies are going out of their way in order to maximize customer retention margin. But here, AT&T went a bit overboard with the math thing, annoying customers through text messages.
When you receive the customer satisfaction messages (which are a pain in the behind to answer, BTW), they claim to only ask you two questions, but in reality, they sneak in a few more than two, and customers realize and won’t have that.
6 out of 7 days a week
We are getting ourselves more incorrect publicity here. But at least we’re not the ones making the mistakes. There is something about businesses wanting to attract customers in ways they cannot back up with actions. This happened with this particular car wash or something similar.
So, the issue here is that they claim to be open 7 days a week. If you keep on reading, you can see that it says, “Monday closed.” Someone messed up with their math here. That ad may need a do-over.
Born in February
Okay, so here we get a 2 for 1 combo. We get both a grammatical error(s) and a biology blunder together in one single tweet. Talk about getting ourselves a bargain. You really need to read it to believe it.
“Hate to break it to y’all,” but pregnancies in women last at the most, nine months. If you conceive a child in February, chances are that it will not be born in February of the next year, but three months earlier, approximately.
Was $8.00, now $7.50
It is not an unusual occurrence that people mess up when operating with decimals. It happens to the best of us, really. So, when you’re dealing with decimals, double-checking is a must. Otherwise, you will end up here with the rest of them.
The person who did the math did not realize that if you do $8.00 minus $7.50, that is $0.5, not $1. Thus, the total saved amount of money would add up to the former statement, not the latter. Yikes. Why do companies want more complaints than they already receive?
Surfboard sale ($199)
Again, another mess up with simple subtractions. We still do not know why people screw them up all the time. Even the most simple of maths. We mean, it can’t be that hard. You just grab a calculator, and you figure it out.
Maybe you can tell us why. What makes this one particularly funny is that there is a stereotype going around, apparently on the internet, that surfers are perceived to be dim-witted to an extent, making the whole situation extra funny for us all.
Class of ‘71 (Elbert County)
There are bad things that can happen to you when miscalculating things. One could be the miscalculation itself. Two, having it printed in a newspaper. Three, having a picture of your mistake photographed (and immortalized) for everybody to see it.
Elbert County Reunion management got it all wrong by 10 years. Well, if you have Doc Brown’s time machine at hand and are able to go back to 2001 when the actual 30-year reunion happened. From 1971 to 2011, there are 40 years in between.
#CRIS
There are certain professions, trades, and even jobs where you require precision when it comes down to simple operations. We are talking about those jobs where you have to give money back to other customers for what they consumed.
Judging by the looks of this wild and crazy photo, the person who paid for the service intended to pay only $1 as a tip but instead left $2. We can’t figure out whether that was kindness, or a simple human mistake.
Fox 32
Fox is a broadcasting company that broadcasts the news of events that happen in America and all around the globe. Even such a company is not exempted from committing such calculating mishaps. Let’s see if you can tell what befell here…
What you can see is the picture of the temperature on the screen. What is curious is that it shows a “-0°” on it. Technically, that expression is not incorrect as long as you are analyzing the continuity of a function.
Clearance (130% off)
There are moments when stores decide to have clearance sales, but in their attempts to showcase attractive deals, they always wind up showing textbook math no-nos. These guys over here went over 100% in the most literal way possible.
If we use our logic, we can somehow tell that if the discounts being applied exceed 100%, not only should they give us the merchandise for free, but they would also have to give us money in return too.
Pregnant for 27 months
Again, here we will show you the magical thought process of people lurking around Twitter. Curiously enough, the logic applied to the Tweet is quite similar to the one we have read above about Beethoven. Thou shalt read to believe.
If you have triplets, which means having three kids simultaneously in one single gestation process does not imply having the gestation period extended for every child-bearer. You are still going to give birth within nine months. Only the delivery process may last longer.
Credit card “scam”
As you can see, the world is full of people who sometimes try to take advantage of others in different ways. It’s cruel, it’s cold, but it happens. Here we can see a not-so-clever person trying to get ahead using unconventional tactics.
The thing is that, when you ask for that extra cash being given to you, that comes from your own budget, not from the business’s budget. What makes the whole scenario even funnier is the remark of the other person who commented.
Year 3000 is 81 years away
Here’s another one of those people having a hard time deciphering the relationship between years that go by and the year they will be in when that time-lapse takes place. They never cease to amuse us, in total honesty.
The only circumstance under which that Tweet or message can be correct is if the person comes from the future, punctually from the year 2919. Who knows, maybe he comes from the future. He should tell us if there are flying cars by then.
Scotcen poll
Polls are in a league of their own. They come from the family of statistical errors, which is a big family, if we say so ourselves. People easily manipulate them to get their arguments “across,” but sometimes that doesn’t go as expected.
What seems to have happened here is that the person who typed pressed the wrong key on the keyboard. He instead performed mathematical statistic that was completely wrong for the whole world to see. But still, it doesn’t take any fun away from it.
Final price ($539.10)
Acer’s are pretty decent computers for their price range. It is not an unusual sight to find them on sale in many of the computer stores that we find around us. But here, they went a bit overboard with the said discount.
Grab your calculator. If the original price is $599, and the final price is $539.10, the money that you will save is $59.9, not $160.89, which is not even close to what is advertised on the sign. Again, they are making more problems for themselves.
“When I was 6…” riddle
The riddle you are about to read right now looks a bit difficult the first time you read it, but in reality, it is not as hard as it looks. First, you try to guess the age of the sister.
So, the reply is quite funny. You can deduct from the statement that if the sister was 3 years when she was 6, by the time she is 70, the sister would most likely be 67. Hilarious, really, if you stop to think about it.
French’s mustard
French’s is a type of mustard brand. As with every other food company, it has different sizes when it comes down to packaging and product content. It can be relatively easy to misunderstand the final amount of product you will receive.
In defense of this person, percentages can be fuzzy at times. It seems as if what is intended by the brand is that it comes with 50% more of its content than the 18 oz. bottle. Bottom line being, more mustard.
Buff Dude (50 x 0)
The image you are about to observe starts off with a quite comical premise that implies that the original person that posted this has never kissed any woman in his life. But, the comment that comes afterward is bound to throw you off your bearings.
The conclusion is that it does not matter if it is 0 x 50 or 50 x 0. The result will always be the same: zero. What still is a mystery is if the person was joking in some way or genuinely got confused there.
8/2(2+2)
This riddle is hilarious, mostly because it makes people say some ludicrous results. But, what makes it even funnier is when people are certainly wrong and even try to bring up their history in calculus classes as solid credentials.
If you follow the aforementioned PEMDAS method, it is easy to tell that first, you have to solve what’s inside the parentheses. Second, you have to, well, solve the multiplication outside of it. Finally, you solve the division. It’s 1.
2+2=5
If you think that calculators will always lead you to the correct answer to an operation, let us tell you that you could be wrong. This is a reminder of always setting up the calculator right before doing any type of math problem.
The catch here is that this person is using complex numbers, which can alter the results, and the user seems to use the calculator’s memory. It’s somewhat strange and downright bizarre. In conclusion, everything points out that it is a trick.
2 Lululemon hoodies
We are back at it with another 2 for 1 inconvenient “promo.” Here, you can take 1 Lulu hoodie for $25 or 2 Lulu hoodies for $80. Do the math, and then tell us if it works out for you or not.
Chances are if you take only one, it’s $25. If both were at the same price, two would be $50. So, buying 2 for $80 means that you would get each Lulu hoodie at $40 each, $15 more expensive than the first offer.