But maybe there's more to it than meets the eye. As soon as I saw the math problem, I knew there were probably tricks involved, because it seemed Too Easy. I also knew that if I attempted to solve it actively in this article, no one would ever take me seriously again, because my math abilities are abysmal. I would be laughed out of grad school, probably. Or something.
Thus, I turned to instructional videos from the interwebs. Why? Because if there's one thing I've learned from the interwebs, it's that if you're having a problem with something — anything — someone else is probably also having a problem with it... and accordingly, they've probably gone ahead and figured it out, making an instructional video documenting their solution as they went. So, yeah — I've been watching other people do math all morning. It's been great.
Now, before you join me in the wide world of online math tutorials, you should try this problem out for yourselves. Are you ready for it? Here it is:
Go ahead. I'll wait.
But we're both wrong, and we're wrong because of an acronym. Apparently, one common response to solving this problem is.... drumroll, please... PEMDAS. "PEMDAS, duh!" they laughed. Surely you remember PEMDAS? Dudes, I don't think I knew PEMDAS to begin with, but apparently, it stands for Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally — or, the slightly more helpful version, Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction, which is generally the "correct" order of operations used to solve math problems. But not in this case! Following PEMDAS will get you negative one, which is incorrect.
For full cooking steps, turn to the next page or click the Open button (>) and don't forget to SHARE with your Facebook friends.
