Public Service Announcement – Winthrop Development Consultants Blog

Mathematics: Is the taught Order of Operations wrong?

Posted on 21 June 2026 Posted in Fun, Public Service Announcement Tagged with Fun, Public Service Announcement No Comments

There are a number of Maths puzzles doing the rounds on social media and many are based on the following theme:

X ÷ Y(A ± B)

The current one on Facebook is 16 ÷ 4(2+2) with people arguing over whether the answer is 16 or 1. I am writing this article because the “strict and literal use” of the PEMDAS or BODMAS mnemonics does not always give the correct answer.

However, it is possible to use the order of operations to solve to the correct answer of 1 in all situations, even with this deliberately ambiguous mathematical expression.

Answer: 48 ÷ 8(14 – 8) = ?

Posted on 24 July 2023 Posted in Fun, Public Service Announcement Tagged with Fun, Public Service Announcement 28 Comments

This mathematics problem has been going around the internet recently and most of the answers I have seen for it published in comments, blogs and videos are actually incorrect. While the equation is stated in a deliberately ambiguous way, it can only have one correct answer and that is not the answer that most of the articles and videos provide.

Fight Cancer by sponsoring the Life Cycle for Canteen OnRoad 2023

Posted on 11 February 2023 Posted in News, Public Service Announcement Tagged with News, Public Service Announcement No Comments

I have left this a bit later than I planned, but this is a request for sponsorship to help me fight cancer and its effects on those fighting this horrible disease as well as on their friends and family.

Canteen Australia is an amazing charity that supports youth and young adults who have been affected (directly or indirectly) by cancer. The Life Cycle for Canteen charity bike rides are the largest single source of financial support for Canteen in Western Australia. Since 1998 over $2,500,000 has been raised and donated.

PSA: Fake Friend Requests – Have you been Hacked?

Posted on 18 December 2022 Posted in Public Service Announcement Tagged with PSA, Public Service Announcement No Comments

This Public Service Announcement comes about after I received or saw messages from three Facebook Friends in the last week that they have been “Hacked” because someone was sending out Fake Friend Requests pretending to be them.

While Fake Friend Requests are definitely a problem and need to be dealt with correctly, they are not an indication that you have been hacked or that your account and passwords have been compromised in any way.