I wrote a (very long) blog post about those viral math problems and am looking for feedback, especially from people who are not convinced that the problem is ambiguous.
It’s about a 30min read so thank you in advance if you really take the time to read it, but I think it’s worth it if you joined such discussions in the past, but I’m probably biased because I wrote it :)
Both of those screenshots, the input is a fraction, thereby removing the ambiguity. But when you use the division symbol, an ambiguity arises. This is why you should never, for any reason, use a division symbol.
Division doesn’t mean fraction. Division is 2 terms, a fraction is 1 term. Terms are separated by operators and joined by grouping symbols. If you change the division to a fraction you change the number of terms and change the answer (and you also would’ve just done division before brackets, which violates the order of operations rules).
…he literally used the
÷operator in the top screenshot. WolframAlpha interprets it as synonymous with/.When putting in ambiguous inputs to WolframAlpha, it does its best to interpret it so that it’s can give an answer, and it shows you underneath how it interpreted it. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t any ambiguity to begin with.
Right. I’m saying both / and ÷ are ambiguous in that context. WA interprets both symbols as having equivalent meaning.
The wrong meaning. It interprets them both as a fraction bar, thus giving the wrong answer.