Every now and then, an interesting arithmetic example goes viral on the Internet.
Here it is: 6:2(2+1). Any schoolchild can solve this example, but professional mathematicians cannot agree on which answer is considered correct: 9 or 1.
We explain why this simple example divided mathematicians into two camps.
As the Zen channel "They Don't Teach You This in School" reports, the solution to this example depends on the order of actions.
There are no questions about the first action. Actions in brackets are always performed first, i.e. 2+1=3.
But there are problems with the second action. On the one hand, according to the rules, after the actions in brackets, the multiplication and division actions are performed in order from left to right.
That is, first we divide 6 by 2, then multiply by 3: 6:2=3; 3*3=9.
On the other hand, there are adherents of the theory of hidden multiplication. According to this theory, you first need to multiply 2 by the bracket, i.e. by 3, and then perform division: division: 2*3=6; 6:6=1.