woman in green tshirt thinking
Chloe Crawford
Chloe Crawford
February 18, 2021 ·  2 min read

One Simple Puzzle That Has Nothing To Do With Math

Puzzles are one of those things where you either love or absolutely dread. I don’t know about you, but I’m one of those people who can’t get enough of them! Every time I see something that needs solving on my Facebook feed, I stop and spend however long it takes to solve the problem at hand. 

I’m pretty good at them… or, at least I thought I was before I encountered this puzzle. 

A seemingly simple puzzle. Can you guess the answer?

Of course, you might be thinking, ‘wow, this is so easy! Obviously, the answer is 6! I mean, it must be.’ Unfortunately, if that’s your answer – you’re wrong. 

Go ahead, give it another try! 

Are you still stuck? That’s not a problem.

In fact, this puzzle has the whole internet stuck. And if I’m brutally honest with you, I couldn’t solve it! After 30 minutes of frustration, going through numerous possibilities in my head, I resorted to a Google search. But hey, I don’t want you to do that, I’ll give you a hint. 

gearbox

The answer to the puzzle is R for reverse! 

Despite how obvious this answer is, if you drive an automatic, I’ll let you off the hook. However, I’m sure that those of you who drive a manual are probably beating yourself up right now, especially if you’re reading this while parked in your car! 

Unfortunately, the answers to the toughest questions are often right under our noses, we just need to think outside the box. Often these answers are missed because of how obvious they are. I mean, maybe the gear numbers even crossed your mind but you thought that this unsolvable problem must have a more complicated formula than that. 

I guess that’s our lesson for today. Sometimes all we have to do to solve the toughest situations is sit back and practice our critical thinking skills.

If you love puzzles, make sure to check out these ones next!