The Ultimate Math Trap: Solving $8 – 8 times 8 + 8$
If you spend any time scrolling through social media, you’ve probably seen one of those math equations designed to tear comment sections apart. People argue, quote ancient Greek philosophers, and accuse each other of failing elementary school—all over a single line of arithmetic.
One classic puzzle that always seems to pop up is: $8 – 8 times 8 + 8$.
At first glance, it looks harmless. After all, it’s just the number 8 repeated a few times! But try running it through your head, and you might find yourself landing on completely different answers depending on how you look at it. Let’s break it down step-by-step and settle the debate once and for all.
The Golden Rule: Order of Operations
To solve this puzzle correctly, we need to rely on the universal rule for math expressions: Order of Operations (often remembered by acronyms like PEMDAS or BODMAS).
The order is strictly:
- Parentheses / Brackets
- Exponents / Orders
- Multiplication and Division (from left to right)
- Addition and Subtraction (from left to right)
With that rule in mind, let’s tackle our equation.
Step-by-Step Breakdown
Let’s look at our expression again:
$$8 – 8 times 8 + 8$$
Step 1: Multiplication First
Looking at the operations, we have subtraction, multiplication, and addition. According to our rules, multiplication takes top priority over addition and subtraction.
First, we isolate the multiplication part: $8 times 8$.
- $8 times 8 = 64$
Now, substitute that back into the equation:
$$8 – 64 + 8$$
Step 2: Left-to-Right Addition and Subtraction
Now we are left with only subtraction and addition. A common mistake here is thinking addition always comes before subtraction because of how the acronyms are written, but they actually share the same priority level. You simply work from left to right.
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