this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2023
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6÷2(1+2) (programming.dev)
submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by wischi@programming.dev to c/memes@lemmy.ml
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https://zeta.one/viral-math/

I wrote a (very long) blog post about those viral math problems and am looking for feedback, especially from people who are not convinced that the problem is ambiguous.

It's about a 30min read so thank you in advance if you really take the time to read it, but I think it's worth it if you joined such discussions in the past, but I'm probably biased because I wrote it :)

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[–] wischi@programming.dev 1 points 9 months ago

Chat GPT's answer for me:

Certainly! The expression 6/2(1+2) is ambiguous due to the implicit multiplication. Let's solve it in both ways:

  1. Implicit multiplication with higher priority:

[ \frac{6}{2}(1+2) ]

First, solve the parentheses:

[ \frac{6}{2}(3) ]

Now, perform the division:

[ 3 \times 3 = 9 ]

  1. Implicit multiplication with the same priority as division:

[ \frac{6}{2(1+2)} ]

Again, solve the parentheses:

[ \frac{6}{2(3)} ]

Now, perform the multiplication first:

[ \frac{6}{6} = 1 ]

So, depending on the interpretation of implicit multiplication, you can get different results: 9 or 1.

I think it's funny that ChatGPT figured out 1 and 9 but has the steps completely backwards. First it points out what has high priority and then does the exact opposite, both times 🤣