This kind of problem falls under "communicating badly and acting smug when misunderstood". Use parenthesis and the problem goes away.
this post was submitted on 31 May 2025
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on that note, can we please have parentheses in language. i keep making ambiguous sentences
People try and use commas for this sort of clarification and are eviscerate for it.
With these sort of math problems, the rules are taught early and then all subsequent math is written in an unambiguous form.
Language has the oddity of going the other way around where the rules get more complex as a display for advanced skills.
My language teachers always told me it was bad form to use too much or even to nest parenthesis...
Then I found lisp...
This is why grammar is important, and "grammar nazis" are the only good kind of nazis.
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I'm sure we're all geniuses here, but just in case...
Please excuse my dear aunt Sally.
Parenthesis, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction.
Why? Because a bunch of dead Greeks say so!
3x3-3÷3+3
(3x3)-(3÷3)+3
9-1+3
8+3
11
I guess remembering grade school order of operation means you're a guinus now? Bar has gotten pretty low...
That's the point.
Set the bar low, but just high enough that tons of people still trip over it.
Sit back and enjoy the comment wars.
The people who are confident but wrong are too proud to admit they were wrong even if they realize it, and comment angrily.
The people who are right and know why, comment for corrections and some to show off how S-M-R-T they are.
The people who are wrong but willing to accept that just have their realization and probably don't think about it again. So do the people who don't know and/or care.
But those first two groups will keep the post going in both shares and comments, because "look at all these wrong people"
It's all designed to boost engagement.
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Not a genius. But if subtraction is last, why isn't it 9-4?
Addition/subtraction work out the same regardless of how you order the operations. If you do subtraction last you start with the original:
9-1+3
and you are adding 3 to the result of (9-1). Since you are trying to perform it before the (9-1) operation is carried out, you can add 3 to the 9:
12-1 = 11
or you can add three to the -1 and get:
9+2 = 11
You only end up with 9-4 if you were subtracting 3 rather than adding three. It all becomes more obvious if you read the original as:
9 + (-1) + 3
Because its not really "1 plus 3", its negative 1 plus 3 which is two. I know it seems a little weird but the minus sign is " tied" to the thing following it.
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Anyone on Facebook that attempts to answer this or engage within its comments has already failed the test.
Anyone on Facebook ~~that attempts to answer this or engage within its comments~~ has already failed the test.
This is the kind of post designed to invoke a reaction. Facebook's and pretty much every other algorithm driven social media is designed to promote posts that have high interaction. So a post that invokes lots of negative reactions gets lots of promotion. Hence the downfall of modern society.
Every one of these only makes me say "wouldn't it be great if we did everything with RPN"?
Boomers and Xgens need to prove, that they remember basic school math in FB lmao.
Gen xers? Don't irk them. They're not noticing you right now.
Very independent, and cranky generation.
Please don't include X with the boomers. Since we stepped into the real world and realized it functions completely differently than what we were raised to believe, life's just been a neverending string of "wait, that was wrong too?" We just want to survive another day under the radar.
Sorry fellow X'rs for publicly acknowledging our existence. Hopefully this post doesn't get any upvotes. *Pulls blanket back over my head.
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Ah, yes. It's only for genius.
I was good at math and it was one of my favorite core subjects in school, so I know I'm a weirdo but... I never understood how people couldn't understand basic PEMDAS/BEDMAS/Whatever-the-fuck-your-country-calls-it.
Obviously these problems are shitty engagement bait because they don't use parentheses, but still, seeing people fuck up the fact that Multiplication AND Division occur at the same time, and then the next step is Addition AND Subtraction just stupefies me.
Like, did you sleep through 4 years of elementary school to miss that fact??? Even in middle school pre-algebra teachers still did PEMDAS refreshers. I get that once I get out of college I'm probably gonna forget half the pre-calc shit I learned because I won't need it, and I'm not being drilled on it everyday like people in school are, but PEMDAS is a fundamental and basic daily life skill that everyone should know...
I really wish we gave a fuck about US education.
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