a very emphatic answer

    
 40-32/2
=40-16
=24
=4*3*2*1
=4!

- The joke was also explained in the title of the post "A Very Emphatic Answer" which highlights the exclamation mark (emphasis) on the answer as being important.
- I certainly did not get it until you said the thing
- I was primed by Reddit to expect the r/unexpectedfactorial
Ah shit. I almost hate this one more than loss.

I hate how these things always come up because "order of operations!" It's mostly people who are bad at math remembering one topic they struggled with and finally got right, and now they know it's a touchy subject so it will drive engagement. It's the modern equivalent of "Mathematicians hate this one secret for solving equations! Click to find out!" Pure engagement bait.

But in all the engineering ive done, things never really come up like this. If there is any potential clarity issues, parentheses would be used, or it would be formatted in a way that makes it much more clear.

40 - (32/2), or 40 - ³²⁄₂ has no clarity issues imo. You don't even have to think about order of operations because 32 halves is a number on its own. it isn't an "operation" to do necessarily, it's a fraction to reduce.

And yes, I get the joke. The joke is making fun of the engagement bait of "some people will get the order of operations wrong!"

s. If there is any potential clarity issues, parentheses would be used, or it would be formatted in a way that makes it much more clear.
It reminds me of a very old xkcd that posits "communicating badly and acting smug when you're misunderstood is not cleverness "
https://xkcd.com/169/
- I knew XKCD is based, but this is new level
- Who's on first? :-)
It's the same as "only 2% of people get this right! If you get it right you have a very strong brain!". It's just a little more devious about it.
- Exactly. if only 2% of people get it, perhaps you’re just shitty at communicating.
It does leave ambiguity with it being an, apparent, quote/dialogue. Correct and Incorrect are both correct depending on your POV and how you interpret social media posts
Love the insight on the bait.
Thanks for the mathsplanation too.

40-32/2 _ 4!

40-16 _ 2×3×4

30-6 _ 2×12

24 = 24

Checks out.

- I'll take that as a compliment. 💝

Depends if the kid said "four!" or "four factorial"

all maths must be said in a neutral tone lest you imply factorials
Almost as if the joke relies on the fact that in written form those are the same.
That’s how I say factorial though I just yell
- So Italians mathematicians put everything in factorial

Throw up some brackets, you rage-baiting motherfucker!

No actually the trick to this one is that Four-Factorial equals 24
So 40 - 16 = 24
- Aha! Fair enough.
This one's perfectly unambiguous without brackets, unlike the 1/2x stuff
- 1/2x is also unambiguous. 2a=(2xa) by definition. Has done for at least 180 years. Terms
- Even your "BODMAS" isn't universal, lots of people learn "PEMDAS" or "BEDMAS"
  At any level of mathematics after elementary school, you never see terrible expressions like this. Well, except for facebook and twitter
  Take for example: 2/2*2 It is 0.5 or 2 depending on order. But if I were anything after high school (I was more complacent in high school, I guess) if someone gave me an arbitrarily solved equation or expression like this, I would be livid and raise hell at them for trying to do that.
- It's perfectly reasonable to read this as both (40-32)/2 and 40-(32/2) anywhere past basic math.

And that kids name? Mathew Matician.

The kid who got it wrong? Numbers McCountyFingers.

Intentionally writing equations shittily is a special type of brain rot.

40 - (32 / 2) = ?

Ftfy.

The cleverness is that it works either way
40-16=4!
8/2=4
But then there's no joke/trick.
- It really is.
  Just because it can be written The original way doesn't mean it should be. It's like developers that use obscure or single letter variables instead of descriptive variables. Sure, you can write variables in an obtuse manner, but it's better for everyone if you write them in a descriptive manner.
fun fact, ? = sqrt(-|x| / 0) for all real x
Nothing wrong with the way it's written - division before subtraction.

I actually remember seeing this on my YouTube feed. I was pretty confused at first until I saw the factorial sign.

OH!

Where is the bell curve

Not related. I love your username

Reject tradition, embrace crab

it's wrong, because:

i would never ask a kid something like that
there is a question mark missing
i don't know any kids and they would probably just flip me off in that situation, which is okay, because they shouldn't talk to strangers