Eli5, people are saying that pemdas is absolute and that 1000 / 5(4-2) = m could be either 100 or 400 because the variable m isn’t defined. Could you all elaborate on what that means?

Question

Eli5, people are saying that pemdas is absolute and that 1000 / 5(4-2) = m could be either 100 or 400 because the variable m isn’t defined. Could you all elaborate on what that means?

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Answer 1

1000 / 5(4-2) is not a well written equation. And that’s on purpose. You see these all over the place in different variations. There is no “right” answer and they are designed to be ambiguous on purpose just to create internet drama.

The ambiguity lies in the use of the “/” symbol. If it is meant to represent division, then m = 400.

But “/” is also used to represent fractions in which case a valid interpretation is that this is 1000 *over* 5(4-2), in which case m = 100.

Either of those are possible interpretations of that equation.