For the uninitiated, the Age included a tricky maths question in a quiz for readers on Saturday: 

Barely a quarter of the 12,000 readers who took the test got the answer right (*scroll to the bottom to check the solution).

Over the weekend and into Monday morning, intelligent readers called the paper, incredulous that we provided the wrong answer.

Quiz takers have demanded we offer the formula, to prove that our answer is correct.

If you were one of these poor complainants, don't worry. The same question was put to a bunch of Harvard, MIT, and Princeton students not long ago, and more than 50 per cent got it wrong.

So was it a trick question? 

"There's no real trick here at all," said research fellow at Australian Council of Educational Research, Dave Tout.

"But it's an important misunderstanding. It shows that people are not understanding the meaning of the text. It shows they are not thinking about the numbers in the context of buying a mop and a bucket. They're just doing the mathematics."

Maths and numeracy are two very different things, Mr Tout says.

Pure mathematics, according to the Oxford University Press, involves algebra, analysis, geometry and logic.

"Mathematics deals with the logic and structure of shape, quantity and arrangement and pattern," Mr Tout says.

"Mathematics is simply what we teach in maths class."**

Numeracy, or otherwise known as "mathematical literacy" goes a step further.

It involves the ability to solve problems, interpret data and make decisions based on logical thinking and reasoning.

"It's about using mathematics for a purpose," Mr Tout says. "It's knowing how to use maths in real settings."

What the wide-scale error reveals, is that there are many maths students and adults who are capable mathematicians, but struggle to apply their skills to the real world.

After all, the arithmetic is as simple as working out how much change you would need in a store, or how much timber you need to cut to build a shelf.

So, some advice to readers who wish to tackle another tricky question:

• Once you have come up with an answer, try to match it against the question. Check that it makes sense in the context of the question. 
   
• Don't dismiss any question as trivial. If the values were dearer - say, $100,100 instead of $1.10 - perhaps you may have taken more care in your calculations.
   
• Don't place too much faith in your intuitions. A book by Daniel Kahneman called Thinking Fast And Slow explores the puzzle we put to readers and warns against the danger of relying on low-effort, intuitive thinking. 

*The answer: 5 cents.

The solution: 

x + (x+ 1) = $1.10

2x + 1 = 1.10.

x = 5 cents.

The majority of readers who took the test - about 10,000 - guessed either 10 cents or $1. If the bucket costs 10 cents, then the total cost of the bucket and the mop would be $1.20.

** Definitions of mathematics are contentious. Philosopher Bertrand Russell said in 1901 that mathematics is "the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true".