Usually when it comes to sums, there is only one correct answer.
But thousands of Twitter users across the world are in a bit of a spin thanks to a maths equation that seems to be producing two answers depending on what method you use.
So, if you think you are a bit of a genius when it comes to mathematical questions, read on.
The debate was kickstarted by a social media user by the name of Em shared an image asking the Twittersphere to solve this problem.
And it has garnered quite the attention with nearly 9,000 likes and more than 11,000 replies at the time of writing.
As can be seen in the above tweet, the maths problem reads: 8 ÷ 2 (2+2) = ?
The two most common answers that people have suggested are one and 16 and it has all gotten quite intense and create quite the divide.
Even TV star Bobby Berk of Queer Eye fame got involved saying: "It's 16 y'all."
And even he got a bit of flack from those who believe it is one.
Now, which is correct?
According to Thomas House in the School of Mathematics at the University of Manchester told us: "It depends on what is called the precedence of the operators involved.
"The usual way to interpret the calculation is that anything within brackets comes first, so we have 8/2(2+2) = 8/2(4). Then division takes place before multiplication, so we have 4(4), which is 16.
"But if someone wants to give multiplication precedence over division, there's nothing to stop them saying that 8/2(4) means 8/8 = 1.
"The lesson is that we have to be careful about definitions, and when writing computer code the first interpretation would normally be written (8/2)*(2+2) and the second 8/(2*(2+2)) to avoid any ambiguity.
"Typing the ambiguous 8/2*(2+2) into my computer gives 16, the 'standard' interpretation."
So really, there is no correct answer. What did you get?
