phoeny

I'm sure it's making rounds everywhere but here's the meme in question:



And people are legit angry that it's either 1 or it's 9. I reblogged it with my explanation:

"LOL TROLLING. As a matter of fact, the equation above is ambiguous leading people to believe it’s either

(6/2) x (1+2)= 9

OR

6/ [2(1+2)]= 1

You know that illusion of seeing either a young lady or the face of an old woman? SAME CONCEPT."

Of course I read the notes, and all I'm getting is PEMDAS thrown at my face (The order of operations goes Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication/Division, Addition/Subtraction).

FUCK PEMDAS, FUCK ORDER OF OPERATIONS. If people can't see that the lousy division slash and the fact that there's nothing to clarify the 2(1+2) makes the equation ambiguous then I have no hope for the math curriculum.

I'm not even a math major, but I wonder why people can't see beyond what they're told.