As simple as 6÷2(1+2) looks to appear, it is very divisive and has caused different ‘school of thoughts’ to argue their ways out of the question.
This seemingly simple math problem racked up over five million views on YouTube.
The correct answer is 9, but controversy ensued because the historical order of operations from before 1917 differs slightly.
Meanwhile, with that version of the rules, which is still taught in many schools, the answer would be 1.
The correct way to solve this problem is to use the modern interpretation of the order of operations, also known as PEMDAS or BODMAS:
Parentheses/Brackets
Exponents/Orders
Multiplication-DivisionAddition-Subtraction
If same precedence, left to right.
Below is the full explanation of the answer:
