Yup, I found an old comment of mine but unfortunately that post was deleted. The numbers are different but its the same riddle

I think the confusion is in the way it’s displayed. The notation in the comic is ambiguous, where the division is shown as a symbol, while the multiplication is implied with the brackets, so some people see the question as 8/(2*(2+2))=1, while others see it as 8/2*(2+2).

For the later, my understanding is that multiplication and division actually have equal priority and are solved left to right (rather than an explicit order as PEDMAS and BEDMAS seem to suggest). So the second interpretation would give 8/2*(2+2)=8/2*(4)=4*4=16

The reason this isn’t a problem more often is because

• math questions should be written unambiguously, using symbols everywhere and fraction bars
• in real life problems, there is a certain order in which you manipulate the numbers, and we can use correct notation (with an excessive number of brackets if needed) to keep it crystal clear