this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2023
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submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by wischi@programming.dev to c/memes@lemmy.ml
 

https://zeta.one/viral-math/

I wrote a (very long) blog post about those viral math problems and am looking for feedback, especially from people who are not convinced that the problem is ambiguous.

It's about a 30min read so thank you in advance if you really take the time to read it, but I think it's worth it if you joined such discussions in the past, but I'm probably biased because I wrote it :)

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[–] Bumblefumble@lemm.ee 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

When putting in ambiguous inputs to WolframAlpha, it does its best to interpret it so that it's can give an answer, and it shows you underneath how it interpreted it. That doesn't mean there wasn't any ambiguity to begin with.

[–] vithigar@lemmy.ca 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Right. I'm saying both / and ÷ are ambiguous in that context. WA interprets both symbols as having equivalent meaning.

[–] SmartmanApps@programming.dev 1 points 8 months ago

WA interprets both symbols as having equivalent meaning

The wrong meaning. It interprets them both as a fraction bar, thus giving the wrong answer.