Simple Math Problem

[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