Math Rant

I HATE posts like this with a passion. No offence to OP; maybe you find it entertaining and that’s okay. Have your fun. I completely understand. However, I feel like I should share my two cents.

Every once in a while posts like these show up and people getting in really angry fights in the comments. They hold onto their one answer and scream that everyone who got a different answer is an “idiot” and “needs to go back to elementary school”. Okay, look. I get it. I /love/ mathematics and I understand that according to the “rules of mathematics”, there’s just one answer. However. We need to remember that the rules of BEDMAS or PEMDAS are just rules of notation. They aren’t mathematical laws, like the Pythagorean Theorem. It’s just an accepted standard of writing notation, just like English grammar for writing essays.

Notation guys, notation. You know what notation is for? That’s right. Making sure that everything is clear to read and easy to understand. If people are misinterpreting your question, guess what. Your question is bad.

There may be only one “correct” answer according to the rules. Half of the commenters may be wrong. But that for sure does not mean that they are bad at mathematics for misinterpreting a question that was created to be misleading. Getting this question wrong doesn’t mean you’re unable to understand the complex plane. Getting this question right doesn’t mean you know how matrices work.

These questions aren’t really about math. They’re just meant to start a feud in the comments and bring out the anger in everyone. And, well, looks like it worked.