For those of you who were confused even after reading the comments: (a)(b) basically means a*b. My mind just didn’t connect that to the fact that (x-x)=0. in the (a-x)(b-x) stuff is also (x-x) which = 0, and anything * 0 = 0, so no matter the value of literally everything else in the equation, it all equals out to 0 because every single () will get multiplied by (x-x), which is 0. There, hopefully that will clear it up for anyone remaining lost. And like all good jokes, they are always best when you have to explain them.
For those that struggled like me…
Going from a-z, write out the last three multiplicands.
X-X
Ah
This was impossible to answer prior to 3 BC.
Unless you were Mayan. They had a concept of zero, or so I heard. But they lacked the letters, a-z and the parentheses :p
Why?
0 wasn’t invented yet.
Mesopotamians invented it because year 0 was approaching, so there was a dire need to represent such number.
That’s when the number 0 was introduced in India.
Ah, I forgot zero was so recent.
Solution?
0
There’s an (x - x) in there
duh…
0
Now I want pie.
