Simple Math Problem

[mk05]

Microsoft Excel says 16, so it is 16. I do agree that the above 2 pages of disagreements, misunderstandings, etc could have been resolved with a clarifying bracket/parenthesis.

I didn't realize that this was an instagram question. Apparently, this has been so widely debated that Popular Science wrote about this today. The spokesman for the American Mathematical Society commented on this:

"According to order of operations, you solve whatever is in the parentheses first. That gives you 4. Then, in PEMDAS, multiplication and division take equal precedence, so you’d do the first that occurs from left to right. So you’d do 8 divided by 2 first, which is 4. Thus, it’s 16 according to classic order of operations.

But the way it’s written, it’s ambiguous. In math, a lot of times there are ambiguities. Mathematicians try to make rules as precise as possible."

A professor from a university wrote that the intent was to be a convention, a question delivered in such a way to obfuscate the reader by design. Specifically:

"Of course this isn't math. This is convention. We have conventions on how to write these things just like we have conventions on how to spell stuff. But still, there are different conventions. Some people spell it as ‘gray’ and others as ‘grey.’ We still understand what's going on. For me, I would write this more explicitly so that there is no confusion. Like this: 8/(2*(2+2)), if that's what you are trying to do. That way no one will get it wrong."

[Weelok]

Originally Posted by mk05

Microsoft Excel says 16, so it is 16. I do agree that the above 2 pages of disagreements, misunderstandings, etc could have been resolved with a clarifying bracket/parenthesis.

I didn't realize that this was an instagram question. Apparently, this has been so widely debated that Popular Science wrote about this today. The spokesman for the American Mathematical Society commented on this:

A professor from a university wrote that the intent was to be a convention, a question delivered in such a way to obfuscate the reader by design. Specifically:

Hah, yes, it was written to be an ambiguous trick but totally cool it’s sparked a national conversation on math!!!!! Much more constructive arguing over an intellectual question then on Bachelorette show drama imho