At first glance, a math expression like 8 – 8 * 8 + 8 looks like a simple arithmetic string designed to trip you up on social media. It pops up in comment sections all the time, sparking fierce debates where people proudly arrive at wildly different answers. But when you break it down using the universal rules of mathematics, there is only one correct solution: -48.
To solve this without falling into common traps, we rely on the order of operations, often remembered by acronyms like PEMDAS or BODMAS. This rule tells us that multiplication and division must always be calculated before addition and subtraction.
Looking at our expression, our first target is the multiplication part: 8 * 8. That gives us 64. Substituting that back in, the expression transforms from 8 – 8 * 8 + 8 into a much simpler sequence: 8 – 64 + 8.
Now we are left with only subtraction and addition. A common pitfall here is doing the addition at the end first (thinking 8 + 8 = 16, then 8 – 16), which is wrong because addition and subtraction have equal priority and must be evaluated strictly from left to right.
Following left to right, we first calculate 8 – 64, which equals -56. Finally, we add the last 8: -56 + 8, landing us right at -48.
Math puzzles like this one go viral precisely because they exploit our brain’s tendency to read sentences left to right rather than pausing to apply the proper rules. Once you remember the order of operations, the mystery vanishes, leaving behind a satisfying and definitive mathematical truth.
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