This summer, battle lines were drawn over a simple math problem: 8 ÷ 2(2 + 2) = ? If you divide 8 by 2 first, you get 16, but if you multiply 2 by (2 + 2) first, you get 1. So, which answer is right?

This article was originally published by computer historian Ken Shirriff on his blog. Thanks to his kind permission, the article is reproduced here. Eine Übertragung ins Deutsche ist ebenfalls ...