For many, it’s been years since they’ve sat in a classroom while a teacher tested their arithmetic skills.
Internet users are now racking their brains to remember how to solve elementary school equations after a math problem went viral on social media.
An X user shared the equation, asking their follower: ‘Can you solve this?!’
The problem was: 25 + 15 ÷ 5.
Over 200 social media users sounded off in the comments about whether the answer was 8 or 28.
‘Errrrr 8,’ one user responded.
‘Of course 28,’ another one argued.
If you’re struggling to figure out the answer, try to recall your school days when you learned the sacred acronym, PEMDAS.
Before scrolling to reveal the answer, can you solve the equation in your head?
PEMDAS stands for Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, and Subtraction.
The acronym is a reminder of the order in which equations are solved. For this problem, since there are no parentheses or exponents, multiplication or division must come first.
Even though 25 + 5 comes first in the equation, the first step is dividing 15 by 5 due to the order of operations.
Since 15 ÷ 5 is 3, the equation now becomes 25 + 3, which equals 28.
To solve the equation, 15 is first divided by 5 to get 25 + 3, which equals 28. Those who didn’t solve using PEMDAS may’ve incorrectly gotten 8 as the answer
Those who incorrectly guessed the answer was 8, neglected PEMDAS, and started by adding 25 + 15.
The next step would’ve been to add 25 and 15, which is 40, then divide 40 by 5 to incorrectly generate the answer of 8.
Were you able to solve the math equation on your first try?
If yes, congratulations! If not, don’t fret, many social media users made the simple mistake of solving the equation in order instead of following the rules of PEMDAS.
