re: what is the answer to this facebook math problem?

quote:

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The problem wasn't asking anything other than, "8 + 11 = ?". Even though other information some false, all irrelevant was provided, any answer other than 19 requires the unwarranted redefinition of standard mathematical symbols.

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That interpretation reduces the "problem" to a joke whose punchline is 19, the joke being that the normally implicit truth of a system in such problems cannot be assumed here. I think that interpretation is belied by the fact there is a simple underlying pattern to it.