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?

In: 0

Answer 1

This, and many, many similar problems online, are rage/engagement bait. They put the operations together in a way where it’s ambiguous what order you are meant to solve the problem in.

“The variable ‘m’ isn’t defined” doesn’t mean anything here. The issue is that one interpretation is (1000/5) * (4-2), and another interpretation is 1000 / (5*(4-2)), and those result in an answer of 400 or 100, respectively.