Wow. This actually the first time I've looked into this thread. It seemed pretty damn clear to me that the answer was 288, so imagine my surprise when I clicked on the poll results and saw that the obviously (to me) wrong answer was ahead, and that 338 OT'ers had voted for it.
There's one ton of intellectual fail on OT, the logic fail in argument is legion, but I would have thought that, collectively, basic math was in the OT demographic's wheelhouse.
OT's English language fail, I more or less understand. I've developed a lot more sympathy for it than I previously had.
The way you were raised and the way you (weren't) taught, I get it. English can be tough if you don't read much and aren't taught proper grammar when young. And in our "close enough, Do0d" culture so many of you just aren't motivated to learn.
But . . . basic math? D:
I then kinda skimmed some of the first page and most of the last page. My head assplodes at the contention that many "math experts" say the answer is 2. I suspect misattribution, but I don't have the energy to prove this, so I'll just amend the quote below to include matlab and leave it at that:
I can only conclude that THIS is why so many of you are up shit's creek without a paddle as regards the English language -- you depend on your peers for guidance and, as proved here, your peers are largely fucked in the head, Ted. :'(
Coda: I also saw while skimming that some posters whom I know not to be dummies or trolls were passionately defending 2 as the correct answer, so I suspect (hope?) that there are parts of this controversy which have eluded my cursory investigation. It's just that the way I was taught, 288 is unambiguously the right answer. <shrug>