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| Photo: Carl Court/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
Math can be
useful. It can also be elegant, even beautiful — a word you’ll often
hear mathematicians say when they describe the discovery of a nugget of
surprising insight.
That seemingly simple equation that ricocheted across the internet recently was neither useful nor elegant. By now, you’ve likely seen it:
8 ÷ 2(2+2) = ?
“I HATE this,”
Amie Wilkinson, a mathematician at the University of Chicago, commented
on a Facebook post by a colleague about the equation, echoing the
disdain felt by many mathematicians for the trending question.
Kenneth Ribet of the University of California, Berkeley described it as “irksome.”
“I
didn’t care. I wasn’t interested,” said Greg Kuperberg of the
University of California, Davis. “I stared at it a little bit and moved
on.”...
For mathematicians, equations like this
one — something that looks like what you learned in school, but which
has been twisted with intentionally ambiguous notation — reinforce the
trope that the core of math consists of memorized recipes of
calculation.
“It implies that the point of mathematics to trip up other people with stupid rules,” Dr. Wilkinson said.
Additional resources
Viral math problem baffles mathematicians, physicists | Mathematics - New York Post
Source: The New York Times
