The Viral Math Trap That’s Breaking the Internet

5

Then continue from there and arrive at another number.

But multiplication has priority over subtraction. Once the parentheses have been solved, 2 × 4 must be calculated before subtracting it from 7.

This is the basic principle behind PEMDAS, commonly taught as:

  • P — Parentheses
  • E — Exponents
  • M — Multiplication
  • D — Division
  • A — Addition
  • S — Subtraction

Multiplication and division are handled before addition and subtraction when they appear at the same level of the expression.

Why These Puzzles Go Viral

What makes these puzzles so entertaining is that the equation looks almost