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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)
this post was submitted on 31 May 2025
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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
a + b = b + a
a×b = b×a
(a + b) + c = a + (b + c)
(a×b)×c = a×(b×c)
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