8 ÷ 2(2+2) = ?

[Joe Shlabotnik]

It's blue and black.

[CardsofSTL]

Parentheses first then work left to right. The answer is 16.

[stlouie_lipp]

Parentheses first then work left to right. The answer is 16.

[lukethedrifter]

Parentheses first then work left to right. The answer is 16.

Thems the rules.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

Parentheses first then work left to right. The answer is 16.

Parenthesis first means getting rid of 2(4) first and that gets you to 1 and that leads me to my original answer: blue and black.

[obucard]

Following normal order of operations, it is clearly 1. I'm not completely sure how people get 16 unless they are reading the divide sign as a + sign.

1 is my answer as well. The article gets at how one might make a case for 16. Apparently, Google and WolframAlpha calculators will give you 16.

Seems to come down to how you handle "implicit multiplication."

OK, I see how they are getting there now. I had always been taught to act on implied multiplication first.

Whether implicit or explicit, it's still multiplication, so shouldn't it always come before division?

My understanding that both were done at the same time, left to right; addition and subtraction are done the same way.

[wart57]

Laurel.

[GeddyWrox]

Apparently I went to the maths in 1917

[IMADreamer]

Wolfram gives me 16. It's 16.

[stlouie_lipp]

This confirms what I've thought all along: math sucks.