Overview
- El Comercio (Peru) and Los Andes (Argentina) published a series of short, time‑limited arithmetic puzzles on Friday that present an expression, walk readers through each step, and give the final answer.
- The pieces teach the standard order of operations (PEMDAS/DOBMAS) and explicitly cite sources such as Auburn University when explaining the mnemonic.
- Reporters and worked examples repeatedly correct the misconception that multiplication always outranks division, showing that multiplication and division share the same precedence and must be resolved left to right.
- Samples solved step by step include (36 + 28) ÷ 8 × 5 − 13 = 27 and (84 ÷ 12 + 5) × 4 − 18 = 30, and other El Comercio puzzles yielded results such as 14 × 2 − 5(6 + 7) − 1 = −38.
- Los Andes sometimes uses IA Gemini signposts and recommends rewriting the expression after each step to avoid errors, reflecting a practice-focused, educational aim that responds to past public confusion over ambiguous notation.