Math puzzles on the internet often look very simple at first glance.
However, they frequently create huge debates among millions of people.
Today, we are looking at a classic viral problem: 27 ÷ 9(5 – 2) = ?
Many people immediately solve it and proudly declare that the answer is 1.
The note in the picture even teases us with: “Looks easy, but answer is not 1?”
So, why do so many people get 1, and what is the actual correct answer?
Let us take a slow and clear journey through the basic rules of mathematics.
In school, we all learned the order of operations, often known as PEMDAS or BODMAS.
These acronyms stand for Parentheses (or Brackets), Exponents (or Orders), Multiplication and Division, and Addition and Subtraction.
The very first rule of order of operations is always to solve what is inside the parentheses.
Inside our parentheses, we have the simple subtraction: 5 minus 2.
Five minus two equals three.
Now, we can substitute that result back into our original expression.
The math problem now looks like this: 27 ÷ 9(3).
This is the exact moment where many people take the wrong turn.
When a number sits right next to a parenthesis without a sign, it simply means multiplication.
So, the expression 27 ÷ 9(3) is completely identical to 27 ÷ 9 × 3.
Now, look closely at the operations we have left: one division and one multiplication.
A very common misunderstanding comes from the letters in the acronym PEMDAS.
Because the letter ‘M’ comes before the letter ‘D’, many people believe multiplication must always happen before division.
That is actually an incorrect rule.
In modern mathematics, multiplication and division have the exact same level of priority.
They are equal partners in the hierarchy of arithmetic.
When two operations have the equal priority, the universal rule is to calculate strictly from left to right.
Let us see what happens if someone incorrectly multiplies first.
They would multiply 9 by 3 to get 27.
Then, they would calculate 27 divided by 27, which gives 1.
That is why so many people mistakenly think the answer is 1.
Now, let us follow the correct mathematical rule from left to right.
Going from left to right, the first operation we meet is 27 divided by 9.
Twenty-seven divided by nine equals three.
Now, our entire expression becomes very simple: 3 × 3.
Finally, three multiplied by three gives nine.
Therefore, following the standard and modern rules of arithmetic, the correct answer is 9.
