this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2023
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6÷2(1+2) (programming.dev)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

https://zeta.one/viral-math/

I wrote a (very long) blog post about those viral math problems and am looking for feedback, especially from people who are not convinced that the problem is ambiguous.

It's about a 30min read so thank you in advance if you really take the time to read it, but I think it's worth it if you joined such discussions in the past, but I'm probably biased because I wrote it :)

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (5 children)

That's cool and Imma let you finish but I'm not a mathematician and the answer is 9.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I am so glad that nothing I do in life will ever cause this problem to matter to me.

The way I was taught in school, the answer is clearly 1, but I did read the blog post and I understand why that's actually ambiguous.

Fortunately, I don't have to care, so will sleep well knowing the answer is 1, and that I'm as correct as anyone else. :-p

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Very cool article on an aspect of math that I've never thought too deeply about before 👍

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

The real question here is BODMAS or PEMDAS?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Up here in the canada, we did BEDMAS

Brackets, Exponents, Division/Multiplication, Addition/Subtraction

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (10 children)

isn't that division sign I only saw Americans use written like this (÷) means it's a fraction? so it's 6÷2, since the divisor (or what is it called in english, the bottom half of the fraction) isn't in parenthesis, so it would be foolish to put the whole 2(1+2) down there, there's no reason for that.

so it's (6/2)*(1+2) which is 3*3 = 9.

the other way around would be 6÷(2(1+2)) if the whole expression is in the divisor and than that's 1.

tho I'm not really proficient in math, I have eventually failed it in university, but if I remember my teachers correctly, this should be the way. but again, where I live, we never use the ÷ sign, only in elementary school where we divide on paper. instead we use the fraction form, and with that, these kind of seemingly ambiguous expressions doesn't exist.

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