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this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2025
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Math Memes
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25 - 5 ÷ 5when read naively left to right looks like it would be "25 - 5 = 20. Then take that and divide by 5, for an answer of 4". It would be clearer to write it as(25 - 5) ÷ 5or25 - (5 ÷ 5)depending on what's intended.You see those kind of "gotcha!" posts online sometimes, where someone posts a problem that tempts you into doing order of operations wrong.
Someone who sees how to do it correctly immediately and thinks everyone knows that is invited to view https://xkcd.com/2501/ as well.
Natively? It's a math equation there is only one way to read it as far as I am aware.
Naively, not natively. Someone who wasn't a good math student, or just doesn't remember, might read it left to right and come to the wrong conclusion. The rules for order-of-operations are, so far as I know, arbitrary, and different people coming at it without instruction (ie: naively) could arrive at different conclusions. Knowing that you're supposed to do division first isn't obvious.
You could read
25 - 5 ÷ 5as "25 - 5 is 20. 20 divided by 5 is 4" or you could read it (correct, per the standard rules) as "25 minus.. hold on.. 5 divided by 5 is one. Now 25 subtract that from the 25 sitting over there, and get 24." This isn't the same kind of error as, like, "5 divided by 5 is 0"No, they're not.
It is if you've been to school or read a Maths textbook
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