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A fake Facebook event disguised as a math problem has been one of its top posts for 6 months
(www.engadget.com)
Arguing about maths is like dancing to architecture.
this post was submitted on 31 May 2025
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Hey, some architecture is asking for it like Stonehenge
Every one of these only makes me say "wouldn't it be great if we did everything with RPN"?
Ah, yes. It's only for genius.
I'm sure we're all geniuses here, but just in case...
Please excuse my dear aunt Sally.
Parenthesis, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction.
Why? Because a bunch of dead Greeks say so!
3x3-3÷3+3
(3x3)-(3÷3)+3
9-1+3
8+3
11
The "why" goes a little further than that.
In actuality, it's because of fundamental properties of operations
- Commutation
a + b = b + a
a×b = b×a
- Association
(a + b) + c = a + (b + c)
(a×b)×c = a×(b×c)
- Identity
a + 0 = a
a×1 = a
If you know that, then PEMDAS and such are useless because they're derived from those properties but do not fully encompass them.
Eg.
3×2×(2+2) = 3×(4+4) = 12+12 = 24
This is a correct solution that is improper if you're strictly adhering to PEMDAS rule as I've done multiplication before parenthesis from right to left.
I could even go completely out of order by doing 3×2×(2+2) = 2×(6+6) and it will still be correct
I guess remembering grade school order of operation means you're a guinus now? Bar has gotten pretty low...
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This kind of problem falls under "communicating badly and acting smug when misunderstood". Use parenthesis and the problem goes away.
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Boomers and Xgens need to prove, that they remember basic school math in FB lmao.
Please don't include X with the boomers. Since we stepped into the real world and realized it functions completely differently than what we were raised to believe, life's just been a neverending string of "wait, that was wrong too?" We just want to survive another day under the radar.
Sorry fellow X'rs for publicly acknowledging our existence. Hopefully this post doesn't get any upvotes. *Pulls blanket back over my head.
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I was good at math and it was one of my favorite core subjects in school, so I know I'm a weirdo but... I never understood how people couldn't understand basic PEMDAS/BEDMAS/Whatever-the-fuck-your-country-calls-it.
Obviously these problems are shitty engagement bait because they don't use parentheses, but still, seeing people fuck up the fact that Multiplication AND Division occur at the same time, and then the next step is Addition AND Subtraction just stupefies me.
Like, did you sleep through 4 years of elementary school to miss that fact??? Even in middle school pre-algebra teachers still did PEMDAS refreshers. I get that once I get out of college I'm probably gonna forget half the pre-calc shit I learned because I won't need it, and I'm not being drilled on it everyday like people in school are, but PEMDAS is a fundamental and basic daily life skill that everyone should know...
I really wish we gave a fuck about US education.
I was bad at math, but I still managed to get through precal and still remember PEMDAS
I never understood how people couldn’t understand basic PEMDAS/BEDMAS/Whatever-the-fuck-your-country-calls-it.
There's no "whatever-the-fuck-your-country-calls-it", the US is the only country using it, and only up to high school. At least I'm not seeing any papers coming out of the US relying on it so at some point they're dropping it and do what everyone else is doing: Write equations such that you don't need a left-to-right rule to disambiguate things. Also, using multiplication by juxtaposition (2x + 4x^2^).
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Anyone on Facebook that attempts to answer this or engage within its comments has already failed the test.
Anyone on Facebook ~~that attempts to answer this or engage within its comments~~ has already failed the test.
question: is there something more than the expression evaluating to 11?
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"Hey, this is Presh Talwalkar.
Discussion of a brief history of this viral math problem, followed by explanations of common incorrect answers. Ultimately followed by brief discussion on the order of operations, concluding in a final example that equals 11
And that's the answer. Thank you so much for making us one of the best communities on YouTube, where we solve the world's problems, one video at a time."
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