{"id":25126,"date":"2026-05-04T16:38:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T16:38:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/?p=25126"},"modified":"2026-05-04T16:38:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T16:38:34","slug":"math-problem-from-2019-divides-the-internet-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/?p=25126","title":{"rendered":"Math problem from 2019 divides the internet!!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"60\" data-end=\"233\">A simple math problem went viral in 2019 and sparked huge debate online:\u00a0<strong data-start=\"133\" data-end=\"149\">8 \u00f7 2(2 + 2)<\/strong>. The argument centered on how to apply the\u00a0<strong data-start=\"193\" data-end=\"232\">order of operations (PEMDAS\/BODMAS)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"235\" data-end=\"357\">Some people say the answer is\u00a0<strong data-start=\"265\" data-end=\"271\">16<\/strong>: solve the parentheses first (2 + 2 = 4), then go left to right \u2014\u00a0<strong data-start=\"338\" data-end=\"356\">8 \u00f7 2 \u00d7 4 = 16<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"359\" data-end=\"458\">Others argue the answer is\u00a0<strong data-start=\"386\" data-end=\"391\">1<\/strong>, treating\u00a0<strong data-start=\"402\" data-end=\"410\">2(4)<\/strong>\u00a0as a single multiplication step:\u00a0<strong data-start=\"444\" data-end=\"457\">8 \u00f7 8 = 1<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"460\" data-end=\"657\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\">Experts say the equation is\u00a0<strong data-start=\"488\" data-end=\"501\">ambiguous<\/strong>, meaning both interpretations appear reasonable depending on how it\u2019s written. The debate showed how even simple math can cause major disagreements online.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered\"><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" class=\"\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=newsner&amp;dnt=true&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=1155598050959745026&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fen.newsner.com%2Ffamily%2Fmath-problem-from-2019-divides-the-internet%2F&amp;sessionId=4b80684ee442cb5e5183dea240c448ad3a95301b&amp;siteScreenName=newsner&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&amp;width=550px\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-tweet-id=\"1155598050959745026\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A simple math problem went viral in 2019 and sparked huge debate online:\u00a08 \u00f7 2(2 + 2). The argument centered on how to apply the\u00a0order of operations (PEMDAS\/BODMAS). Some people say the answer is\u00a016: solve the parentheses first (2 + 2 = 4), then go left to right \u2014\u00a08 \u00f7 2 \u00d7 4 = 16&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/albotips.com\/?p=25126\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Math problem from 2019 divides the internet!!&rdquo;<\/span> &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25127,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25126"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25128,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25126\/revisions\/25128"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}