People Are Disagreeing About the Correct Answer to This Math Problem

Okay, math whizzes, here is your time to shine.

A woman shared a math problem on Twitter that got people talking, and disagreeing, about what the correct answer is.

Take a look at the problem.

oomfies solve this pic.twitter.com/0RO5zTJjKk

— ❦ (@pjmdolI) July 28, 2019

And she posted what she thinks the answer is.

i do parenthesis, multiplication, then division so i believe it’s 1

— ❦ (@pjmdolI) July 28, 2019

And this guy agreed and said he came to that conclusion via the BODMAS Rule, which you can see in his tweet below.

8÷2(2×2) = 8÷2(4) = 8÷8 = 1
= Answer is 1.

Solved Via “BODMAS” Rule :
(B racket)
O( f )
D÷ ivision
M x ultiplication
A+ dditional
S-ubtraction pic.twitter.com/tu64P3eUyg

— Anant Kashyap (@theanantkashyap) July 30, 2019

But this Tweeter had another rule they use, the PEMDAS rule, and they came up with an answer of 16.

In PEMDAS multiplication and division take equal priority so you do whichever is first from left to right. Same for addition and subtraction. pic.twitter.com/1617gChUms

— Schrodinger’s Gat™ (@supermaddd) July 29, 2019

And this guy agreed with 16.

Just take a minute. pic.twitter.com/MAInghN0gY

— Nick Novak (@Mrnicknovak) July 31, 2019

And then an expert weighed in.

i have 2 math degrees it’s 1

— laur (@genericversion) July 30, 2019

But folks kept going around in circles.

it’s 16 and if you say otherwise start packing your clown shoes 🤡

— karla⁷ (@svhobi) July 29, 2019

Apparently, the consensus is that BOTH answers are correct.

Ugh, math…