People are either answering this as 16 or 1. If you follow the order of operations strictly, you get 16. If you follow what seems to be the spirit of this expression, you get 1. But what is actually interesting about this is the commentary it provides on mathematical notation and, more importantly, how math is taught. I’m putting this under a readmore for y’alls sake but pls read it this is so important to me
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thank you so much this explanation is more detailed than mine
what im getting from this explanation is 1) i didn’t bomb math thru high school i just followed the spirit of expression and 2) simple mathematics is taught to us in the dumbest way imaginable
This reliably discriminates mathematicians, physicists, engineers and other people who use maths at work from people who remember maths from school but never use it otherwise.
The answer is 1
The reason for 1 is because if you write “x(y+z)” and it doesn’t equal (xy+xz) i’m gonna light your keyboard on fire
You’re wrong. And then right! And here x=8/2=4 so x(y+z)=4(2+2)=4*2+4*2=16
Why are you burning my keyboard : ( I agreed with you that multiplication distributes over addition!
