I don't get why these kind of post crop up so often.

The answer to them doesn't matter and these aren't really math questions, because there is no context given. This is just endless discussions about different people having different assumptions on notation used there...

In real math, where the numbers mean something, good and consistent notation is important, but not necessary, because the order of operations or what those operations are exactly would be clear through the context of these formulas. Good notation just makes it easier to spot errors, work with formulas or to avoid confusion.

Here is what I would assume this formula could mean. Someone has 2 apples and 5 bags of apples that initially came with 8 apples each inside, but someone else ate 5 apples from each of these bags.

With this context it is pretty clear what the answer would be.

Any PEMDAS enjoyers in chat?

2+5(8-5)

For anyone wanting to see a different way of solving it with distribution:

2+58-55 2+40-25 42-25 17

So long as you follow the basic math rules, you can solve it in many different ways to get the same result.

Let's keep it easy. There's 2 + all the other number who results in 15 = 17.

Someone may mistake by doing 2+5 then the rest of the operation, resulting in 21. But is wrong.

(* (+ 2 5) (- 8 5))

Hope some LISP can clear this up

Edit:

( + 2 ( * 5 ( - 8 5 ) ) )