this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2025
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~~it's~~
~~a badly~~
~~written~~
~~math~~
~~problem~~
Seriously, every time this comes up and everyone makes a huge deal out of it, I keep thinking, "none of the people writing these better be teachers." You have to be more clear than this.
Edit: ok, not so much this one. I just read the words and assumed the math problem was one of the ambiguous ones. Stand down, soldiers.
No it isn't.
I am, and it's written correctly
It's already 100% clear to everyone who remembers the rules of Maths
NONE of them are ambiguous
Just patently untrue, but I'm no longer interested in this.
Maths textbooks are patently untrue?? 😂 I guess you think Earth is flat too
no
it's
fucking
not
This is just basic algebra, this is actually how the problems in algebra I are written. What the fuck?
I think it's reasonable if you consider the kind of physical situation it might represent.
You visit a farm and there are 2 unpackaged apples. There are also 5 packages that hold 8 apples but 5 have been removed from each. How many apples are there?
In fairness, this one isn't nearly as bad as most of the ambiguous problems that get passed around on Facebook with multiple parentheticals and such.
Your word problem is excellent.
There aren't any ambiguous ones, and anyone who thinks they're ambiguous has forgotten the rules of Maths.
how should it have been written?
Nope, you're right. I just read the words and assumed it was one of the terrible ones.
This one is just...math.
They ALL are
They're definitely not
Says person who definitely can't give a single example of any that aren't 🙄
I don't take homework from insufferably smug jerks on the Internet. Have a good one.
Nor Maths teachers apparently, which would explain a lot. Hilarious that you say goodbye when you can't back up what you said with a single example
Believe what you like. Including that all mathematics communication and education is flawless and incapable of any ambiguity, apparently.
But for your own growth as a person, I recommend you chew on this: the people who write these "questions" to put on Facebook are exploiting the exact same mindset that made you decide that insulting my intelligence was the best way to have this conversation, and using it to get a massive amount of rage-baity engagement. They're not teachers trying to educate. They're scammers trying to build up a following so that they can execute a scam.
Actual math educators, on the other hand, are moving away from using the "PEMDAS" (or "BEDMAS") acronyms because of the ambiguity inherent in them, and using "GEMS" (or "GEMA") instead. Partially because, if even smart people who know PEMDAS can get confused, the acronym must not be all that useful.
Anyway. You're trying to make me mad, and for a minute it worked. But I'm over it. Again--have a good one.
Same as all Mathematicians, textbooks and proofs.
Yep
you were the one who decided to refuse to look in Maths textbooks 🙄
No they aren't.
There isn't any ambiguity in them 🙄
Nope. No Maths textbooks are using that.
And if that is true, then GEMA would be completely useless 🙄
No I'm not.
Again, you still couldn't provide a shred of evidence to support your argument
Ok.
Not this one, there is no ambiguity here. Order of operations are all good.
Yea that is true but a lot of these questions use the division sign when they should just use a fraction and everything would have been easy to understand. If i see the devision sign and there are more than 2 elements like x=a÷b+5 i cry because if they just used x=a/(b+5) or x=a/b +5 it is just visible no ambiguity. (a/b as in a over b, idk how to do fractions on the phone if you know tell me!)
There's nothing wrong with using a Division sign, and anyone who thinks there is has forgotten the rules of Maths.
There's NEVER any ambiguity. It's what the rules of Maths are for!
No, that's a divided by b. (a/b) is a over b.
No need to, just use Brackets for Fractions.