Maths hack blowing people’s minds

TWITTER isn't always the best place to learn new things.

Sure, you could learn about the worst red carpet looks from the Oscars, or watch a public celebrity feud unfold in real time, but Twitter isn't the ideal platform for scholarly pursuits.

Until now.

Ben Stephens, a copywriter living in the UK, shared a simple trick to calculate percentages on Twitter last week.

Describing it as a "fascinating little life hack", Ben showed his followers that simply flipping your numbers, then multiplying them together, will calculate the percentage of any number you desire.

For example, 8 per cent of 25 is much easier to calculate, if you flip the numbers around, and multiply 25 by 8.

Divide that by 100, and you've got 2.

So 8 per cent of 25 = 2. Voila!

The response to Ben's hack has grown to epic proportions in the last four days, with the post attracting more than 11,000 likes and almost 4,000 retweets.

People's comments circulated around how rocked they were by the simple magic of Ben's trick.

One person claimed: "every teacher I have ever had has failed me".

Others who work around numbers every day couldn't quite believe they had never been shown the simple 'switcheroo'.

Some were just genuinely shook by Ben's "sorcery".

For Ben, who claimed to have spent years talking about the perils of Brexit and Donald Trump, the instant success of his mathematical trick was rather amusing.

Keep up the good work, Ben. Can't wait to see what you've got for us next.