40-32/2
=40-16
=24
=4*3*2*1
=4!
The joke was also explained in the title of the post “A Very Emphatic Answer” which highlights the exclamation mark (emphasis) on the answer as being important.
I hate how these things always come up because “order of operations!” It’s mostly people who are bad at math remembering one topic they struggled with and finally got right, and now they know it’s a touchy subject so it will drive engagement. It’s the modern equivalent of “Mathematicians hate this one secret for solving equations! Click to find out!” Pure engagement bait.
But in all the engineering ive done, things never really come up like this. If there is any potential clarity issues, parentheses would be used, or it would be formatted in a way that makes it much more clear.
40 - (32/2), or 40 - ³²⁄₂ has no clarity issues imo. You don’t even have to think about order of operations because 32 halves is a number on its own. it isn’t an “operation” to do necessarily, it’s a fraction to reduce.
And yes, I get the joke. The joke is making fun of the engagement bait of “some people will get the order of operations wrong!”
The joke
(40 - 32)/2 = 4
If you stop here, you used the wrong order of operations. This is where the the fights normally start in the replies.
but the kid said “4!” not “4”
40 - (32/2) = 24 = 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 = 4!
s. If there is any potential clarity issues, parentheses would be used, or it would be formatted in a way that makes it much more clear.
It reminds me of a very old xkcd that posits "communicating badly and acting smug when you’re misunderstood is not cleverness "
I mean, xkcd numbers its comics sequentially, and he’s well into the 2000’s now, so a 1xy comic is ancient. Looks like at times, old xkcd was brutal.
It’s the same as “only 2% of people get this right! If you get it right you have a very strong brain!”. It’s just a little more devious about it.
40-32/2 _ 4!
40-16 _ 2×3×4
30-6 _ 2×12
24 = 24
Checks out.
Depends if the kid said “four!” or “four factorial”
Throw up some brackets, you rage-baiting motherfucker!
No actually the trick to this one is that Four-Factorial equals 24
So 40 - 16 = 24
Even your “BODMAS” isn’t universal, lots of people learn “PEMDAS” or “BEDMAS”
At any level of mathematics after elementary school, you never see terrible expressions like this. Well, except for facebook and twitter
Take for example: 2/2*2 It is 0.5 or 2 depending on order. But if I were anything after high school (I was more complacent in high school, I guess) if someone gave me an arbitrarily solved equation or expression like this, I would be livid and raise hell at them for trying to do that.
The fundamentals are literally the same, and the difference is in the words people use for the same thing, brackets and parentheses are used in the same way and only changes how the acronym is spelled. Powers, indices and exponents are the same thing. Here’s my version, PITDAT (parentheses, indices, times, divide, add, takeaway.)
Even your “BODMAS” isn’t universal, lots of people learn “PEMDAS” or “BEDMAS”
The rules are universal, only the mnemonics used to remember the rules are different
except for facebook and twitter
… and high school Maths textbooks, and order of operations worksheet generators, and…
2/2*2 It is 0.5 or 2 depending on order.
It’s always 2. #MathsIsNeverAmbiguous
It’s perfectly reasonable to read this as both (40-32)/2 and 40-(32/2) anywhere past basic math.
