The Internet’s Favorite Math Trap: Solving $8 – 8 times 8 + 8$

If you spend any time scrolling through social media, you’ve likely stumbled across a seemingly innocent math problem designed to start arguments in the comments section. One of the most classic culprits is this deceptively simple expression:

$8 – 8 times 8 + 8$

At first glance, it looks like something a third-grader could breeze through in seconds. Yet, whenever this equation pops up online, thousands of adults flood the comments with conflicting answers like $0$, $8$, and $-48$.

How can a single line of basic arithmetic yield so many different answers? Let’s break down the math, uncover the rules of the road, and see where everyone goes wrong.

The Correct Answer

The correct answer to $8 – 8 times 8 + 8$ is $-48$.

If you got this right on your first try, pat yourself on the back! You successfully remembered a fundamental rule of mathematics that many people left behind in middle school.

Step-by-Step Breakdown: The Order of Operations

To solve this correctly, we must rely on the universal rules governing mathematical order of operations, universally known as PEMDAS (Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication and Division, Addition and Subtraction) or BODMAS (Brackets, Orders, Division and Multiplication, Addition and Subtraction).