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 :)
Hi, I’m stupid, is it 1+2 first, then multiple it by 2, then divide 6 by 6?
Or is it 1+2, then divide 6 by 2, then multiple?
I think it’s the first one but I’ve got no idea.
It’s the first, as per The Distributive Law and Terms. It could only ever be the second if the 6/2 was in brackets. i.e. (6/2)(1+2).
It’s actually “both”. There are two conventions. One is a bit more popular in science and engineering and the other one in the general population. It’s actually even more complicated than that (thus the long blog post) but the most correct answer would be to point out that the implicit multiplication after the division is ambiguous. So it’s not really “solvable” in that form without context.
You’d think we would’ve solve this with Einstein or Aristotle or something.
Indeed it was already solved more than 100 years ago. The issue isn’t that it’s “ambiguous” - it isn’t - it’s that people have forgotten what they were taught (students don’t get this wrong - only adults). i.e. The Distributive Law and Terms.