A grade-school math problem has stumped people. Can you solve the equation?

What does BODMAS stand for? The BODMAS acronym stands for: brackets, orders, division, multiplication, addition, subtraction. It is sometimes known as BIDMAS (with ‘Indices’ instead of ‘Orders’) or ...

An illustration of a magnifying glass. An illustration of a magnifying glass.

I recently observed a fifth-grade class that would have felt completely familiar to most teachers. A problem was put on the board, and students worked for a few minutes to solve it. Then the teacher ...

Earlier this week, I wrote about the history of progressive math education, the culture wars it has inspired over the past hundred years, and the controversy over the California Math Framework. Today, ...

For about a decade now, mathematicians and mathematics educators have been weighing in on a particular debate rooted in school mathematics that shows no signs of abating. If you’re like most, your ...

See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. Mathematics is a fundamental part of anyone's elementary and high ...

Counting will get you nowhere. Try a little combinatorics instead. By Kenneth Chang See more of our coverage in your search results.Encuentra más de nuestra cobertura en los resultados de búsqueda.

The answer could be 1 or it could be 16, or it could be both. There are two problems, according to the computer science professor: the order and the obelus. An obelus is this: ÷ and it has a variety ...

Everyone agreed on the first step: Solve inside the parentheses, for 2+2=4. But after that, people split down two paths. Some multiplied first, while others divided, leading to different answers—1 and ...

The confusion (likely intentional) boiled down to a discrepancy between the math rules used in grade school and in high school. By Steven Strogatz Recently I wrote about a math equation that had ...