Mathematicians, physicists, and Popular Mechanics editors argue about how to solve the ambiguous math problem that has gone viral.

One short math problem set the internet ablaze this weekend—and incited charged arguments on math teacher Twitter, too.

But another order of operations - which dates back to how algebra equations were solved over 100 years ago - creates an entirely different solution to the problem.

Viral math equations have been known to divide people on the internet. Some problems are so mind-bogglingly hard that they seem impossible, even if they're meant for elementary school students.

To help students in the United States remember this order of operations, teachers drill the acronym PEMDAS into them: parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction.

Learn how to perform order of operations using BIDMAS with BBC Bitesize Maths. For students between the ages of 11 and 14.