The World Wide web is a spectacular place where people far and wide can come together.

Thanks to the Internet, an immeasurable number of the world’s problems have been solved. But some have also been created because of it.

The internet has become a massive platform for debate. Recently a simple math equation started a hot argument and people around the world argued about the answer.

The equation

The math equation in question is 8 ÷ 2(2+2) = ? It seems simple enough, right? Wrong.

The original person who posted this claimed that “just one in a million people can solve it”. That got things heated right away.

Divided minds

People leaped on the opportunity to be part of the one in a million who knew the right answer. But, it immediately came apparent that there were TWO dominant numbers being cited as the solution.

Grab a calculator!

Those who are naturally gifted (or can remember PEMDAS from 7th grade), did this in their heads. Others asked the mighty calculator for help. But even the calculators failed to create a consensus!

Proving intelligence

Even psychologists have chimed in on this. Their comments have little to do with the answer to the math equation and more to do with the people arguing about it.

The professionals seem to agree….that the people who are arguing are really just trying to prove their wit.

There can only be one answer!

Sian Bielock, an Academic at the University of Chicago makes a great point. “These debates of who’s right and who’s wrong make people feel like jerks at the end once they realize they are investing too much time and energy convincing others why their answer is the best one.”

So, then which one is it?

Getting to the bottom of it

At first glance, most individuals online can agree that the operation in the parenthesis is first. The challenge arises when they then have to choose which comes next, the division or multiplication. This is where the varying answers come from!

Based on what people choose, the solution is either 1 or 16, hence the battle of two answers.

Is it 16, or?

For this type of equation, students are sometimes taught to use a standard convention. That means that such operations are completed from the left to the right. In this case, the division would come first, making the answer 16.

Real wisdom says…

An expert in mathematics had this to say about the issue,

“No professional mathematician would ever write something so obviously ambiguous. We would insert parentheses to indicate our meaning and to signal whether the division should be carried out first or the multiplication.”

As a mathematics professor at Cornell, he certainly knows what he’s talking about.

In the end

The simplest summary of this debate is that there are just two answers to this “simple math question” and the real problem is just that its a poorly written equation!

And the real, real problem underlying the debate is simply the fact that people really enjoy feeling smart on the internet.

It’s a place where opinions fly and facts are apparently now up for debate! Whether it’s silly math or something more serious, we should all take this story as an example of why we should be wary of people who claim to know what they’re talking about online!

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Source: Bored Daddy, Wikipedia