this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2025
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They did the joke wrong. To do it right you need to use the ÷ symbol. Because people never use that after they learn fractions, people treat things like a + b ÷ c + d as
Or (a + b) ÷ (c + d) when they should be treating it as a + (b ÷ c) + d.
That's the most common one of these "troll math" tricks. Because notating as
Is much more common and useful. So people get used to grouping everything around the division operator as if they're in parentheses.
Or
12 / 2(6)
And trying to argue this is 36.
Now that's a good troll math thing because it gets really deep into the weeds of mathematical notation. There isn't one true order of operations that is objectively correct, and on top of that, that's hardly the way most people would write that. As in, if you wrote that by hand, you wouldn't use the
/symbol. You'd either use ÷ or a proper fraction.It's a good candidate for nerd sniping.
Personally, I'd call that 36 as written given the context you're saying it in, instead of calling it 1. But I'd say it's ambiguous and you should notate in a way to avoid ambiguities. Especially if you're in the camp of multiplication like
a(b)being different fromaband/ora × b.Yes there is, as found in Maths textbooks the world over
Maths textbooks write it that way
Yes you would.
Same same
Here's one I prepared earlier to save you the trouble
And you'd be wrong
The context is Maths, you have to obey the rules of Maths. a(b+c)=(ab+ac), 5(8-5)=(5x8-5x5).
And you'd be wrong about that too
It already is notated in a way that avoids all ambiguities!
That's not Multiplication, it's Distribution, a(b+c)=(ab+ac), a(b)=(axb).
Nope, that's exactly the same, ab=(axb) by definition
(axb) is most certainly different to axb. 1/ab=1/(axb), 1/axb=b/a
Please read this section of Wikipedia which talks about these topics better than I could. It shows that there is ambiguity in the order of operations and that for especially niche cases there is not a universally accepted order of operations when dealing with mixed division and multiplication. It addresses everything you've mentioned.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_operations#Mixed_division_and_multiplication
Well, now you might be running into syntax issues instead of PEMDAS issues depending on what they're confused about. If it's 12 over 2*6, it's 1. If it's 12 ÷ 2 x 6, it's 36.
A lot of people try a bunch of funky stuff to represent fractions in text form (like mixing spaces and no spaces) when they should just be treating it like a programmer has to, and use parenthesis if it's a complex fraction in basic text form.
The P in PEMDAS means to solve everything within parentheses first; there is no "distribution" step or rule that says multiplying without a visible operator other than parentheses comes first. So yes, 36 is valid here. It's mostly because PEMDAS never shows up in the same context as this sort of multiplication or large fractions
Treat
a + b/c + dasa + b/(c + d)I can almost understand, I was guilty of doing that in school with multiplication, but auto-parenthesising the first part is really crazy take, imoThat's a really odd way to parse it.
No don't. That rule was changed more than 130 years ago. a+b/c+d=a+(b/c)+d, Division before Addition
Yes they do, because not every division is a fraction
https://math.berkeley.edu/~wu/order5.pdf
I already said he was wrong about that. Quoting him saying it doesn't change that he's wrong about it
Take it up with Berkeley then.
What for? You're only the second person ever to have quoted him. You're not the first person to refuse to look in Maths textbooks though 🙄
Take it up with Berkeley.
Says person refusing to look in Maths textbooks 😂
I cannot stress this enough. If you have a problem with that, contact the author or Berkeley, not me.
I cannot stress this enough - look in Maths textbooks, not random University blogs 😂
Tell them, not me.
You're the one commenting without reading Maths textbooks
Go tell Berkeley I did that.
You can stop humoring this broken robot. Especially when the context is 'yeah I already said this textbook is wrong, but I am better than you because you need to read this textbook.'
They seem to believe that and on the 8th day God made the one true objective order of operations that all humans use and agree on.
Except for that time the definition of division changed 130 years ago. Which is not a rule! It's notation, or syntax, or possibly sometimes a rule. Whichever one lets them sneer hardest.
I tried explaining RPN to them a year ago. They still insist there's parentheses in it. Today they called it an "app."
Dogmatic patience vampire is still trying to bait me into further wasted effort.
Wowww. Insisting that they're good at math. I distinctly remember learning that RPN doesn't need parentheses in college.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_Polish_notation
But, you know, anyone can edit Wikipedia. Someone probably put that there who hasn't opened a math textbook.
Oh of course. The sky isn't blue unless that's written in a maths textbook.
And if you look up and see stars, it's still blue, because it's written in a maths textbook! Are you saying a teacher could be wrong?!, smug emoji, crying emoji, roll-eyes emoji?