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 :)

  • Doctor xNo@r.nfEnglish
    84·
    11 months ago

    I don’t see the problem actually.

    1. Everything between ()
    2. Exponents
    3. multiply and devision
    4. plus and minus
    5. Always work from left to right.

    ==========

    1. 1+2= 3

    2. No exponents

      • 6 devised by 2 (whether a fraction or not) is 3
      • 3 times 3 is 9

    4. Nothing remains

    • Th4tGuyII@kbin.social
      61·
      11 months ago

      The meme refers to the problem of handling implicit multiplication by juxtaposition.
      Depending on what field you’re in, implicit multiplication takes priority over explicit multiplication/division (known as strong juxtaposition) rather than what you and a lot of people would assume (known as weak juxtaposition).

      With weak juxtaposition you end up 9 just as you did, but with strong juxtaposition you end up with 1 instead.

      For most people and most scenarios this doesn’t matter, as you’d never encounter such ambiguous equations outside of viral puzzles like this, but it is worth knowing that not all fields agree on how implicit multiplication is handled.