Why you should cry for the intelligence of the human Race.

[yzia]

There is a lot of ambiguity in the way your math symbols are translated to a single line of typed text. What do you mean exactly?

(\frac{48}{2\times (9+3)})

or

(\frac{48}{2}\times (9+3))

I can't tell from what you wrote. We have to know exactly what you meant in order to give an answer.

this is exactly why it has become a meme on the internet. It's all about syntax and has led to a lot of discussions. It's really not a reason to cry for the human race. There are a ton of other reasons that are more pressing.

 

[euroazn]

I agree there are more pressing things, but the sad part is that it's spread across the internet!!!

 

[Andy Nguyen]

It's a perfect trolling topic because chance is people will have different answer and they can argue to death about the right answer.

 

[alain]

Alain - the answer is 288 from the way it's written. Because multiplication and division have the same precedence, you work from the left. So 48/2 * (9+3). It would seem ambiguous, but actually the way it's written is somewhat legitimate.

He didn't write that. He wrote 48/2(9+3). You assume there is a multiplication. You also assume 48 is just dividing by 2. This a classic example of "miss-communication". There is a lot of ambiguity and that lead to all sorts of problems.

 

[yzia]

I agree there are more pressing things, but the sad part is that it's spread across the internet!!!

Welcome to the internet, my friend

 

[Barny]

He didn't write that. He wrote 48/2(9+3). You assume there is a multiplication. You also assume 48 is just dividing by 2. This a classic example of "miss-communication". There is a lot of ambiguity and that lead to all sorts of problems.

Correct. He wrote 48/2(9+3) not 48/(2(9+3)), and if you evaluate what he wrote using high-school maths, BODMAS - brackets over divide multiplication addition subtraction, you get 48/2 * 12, and since multiplication and division are on the same "level" in BODMAS you then work from the left - so 24 * 12. If you put the question into Wolfram Alpha, you get the same. Regardless of what he meant to write, from what is written, the answer is clearly 288.

 

[AWilliams]

People, especially older folks, who haven't focused on math in years can easily make this simple mistake.

 

[euroazn]

Correct. He wrote 48/2(9+3) not 48/(2(9+3)), and if you evaluate what he wrote using high-school maths, BODMAS - brackets over divide multiplication addition subtraction, you get 48/2 * 12, and since multiplication and division are on the same "level" in BODMAS you then work from the left - so 24 * 12. If you put the question into Wolfram Alpha, you get the same. Regardless of what he meant to write, from what is written, the answer is clearly 288.

Agree with everything except for "high-school maths". It's elementary school math, which makes the egregious error even worse!