It’s 9 if you actually understand PEMDAS
I’m guessing confusion is coming from those taking PEMDAS literally as that order? Rather than PE(M|D)(A|S), like it’s supposed to be?
It’s also convoluted by the notation of the multiplication. When it’s written like this, many assume that you need to resolve that term first since it involves parentheses.
This is how I was taught 30 years ago in highschool
I was taught BEDMAS in school, so slightly different order. I was also taught that DM and AS are not specifically in that order, but rather left to right of the equation, in the same lesson. I’m not sure why some schools aren’t doing it that way.
I was taught to do
- Brackets
- Division and multiplication left to right
- Addition and subtraction left to right
There should be a fucking ISO for this shit tbh
I was taught not to write like this so we dont have to deal with this shit 😊
I don’t think I ever used a divide symbol like that beyond elementary school. In practice always use fraction style notation for division because it’s not ambiguous or a gotcha.
Yup, I found an old comment of mine but unfortunately that post was deleted. The numbers are different but its the same riddle
I think the confusion is in the way it’s displayed. The notation in the comic is ambiguous, where the division is shown as a symbol, while the multiplication is implied with the brackets, so some people see the question as
8/(2*(2+2))=1, while others see it as8/2*(2+2).For the later, my understanding is that multiplication and division actually have equal priority and are solved left to right (rather than an explicit order as PEDMAS and BEDMAS seem to suggest). So the second interpretation would give
8/2*(2+2)=8/2*(4)=4*4=16The reason this isn’t a problem more often is because
- math questions should be written unambiguously, using symbols everywhere and fraction bars
- in real life problems, there is a certain order in which you manipulate the numbers, and we can use correct notation (with an excessive number of brackets if needed) to keep it crystal clear
Oh christ the math memes are leaking from facebook
We discovered mathematics, the unflinching language of reality itself, and then managed to make it ambiguous.
If i was an alien id give humanity a big hair-tussle like a dog.
No mathematician would write an ambiguous equation like that.
People who argued over these are displaying an incorrect memory of a math education that is simply not a good look.
Division and multiplication have the same precedence, equations are evaluated left to right, so equation is divide then multiple. Division and subtraction are syntactic sugar for multiplication and addition.
These are fun little experiments showing how social media makes people more stupider and how proud the ignorant behave amongst themselves.
Division and subtraction are syntactic sugar for multiplication and addition.
Can you tell me a bit more about how you mean this? I searched a bit but only basic primary school level resources about the relationship between addition and subtraction came up.
Do you mean like subtraction is just adding a negative number, and division is just multiplication by the inverse of a number? In that case I don’t really see how it simplifies things much because negatives and inverses still need as much definition. Or are you talking about bit-wise operations like a computer would use to do these things?
But hard to write this with the limitations of text but essentially it can be written as multiplication of fractions.
2 ÷ 2 ÷ 2 ÷ 2
2 x ½ x ½ x ½
Personally, I think the second form is easier to visualize and reason about, it can also can be simplified to use an exponent.
6 2 ÷ 1 2 + ×
Or 6 2 1 2 + × ÷ for Patrick
It’s ambiguous either this resolves to
6 / (2(1+2))or(6/2) * (1+2), and therefore both answers must be accepted.By convention, the division sign is not to be used in equations. It is not a standard operation.
It is may be used for representing the operation of division as a symbol, but never as an operator itself.
Anyone using the division sign is using it entirely for trolling purposes.
Huh why would you add additional brackets? It’s simply 6:2*(1+2) then you solve it in order since division and multiplication are same level of operation.
my calculator disagrees.
and i would too, this is basically
6÷2(1+2) = 6÷2×(1+2) = 6÷2×3while you resolve brackets first, you still go left to right. you would get 1 if you did
6÷(2×(1+2))
the issue is the missing multiplication sign between the 2 and the brackets, thats why i always write them even if it is not strictly required
This is pure braindeath for the 100th time still. We, mathematicians always come up with small abuse of notations to make life easier. No mathematician is like, this is the only way you could go you charlatan. That being said, write equations and formulas in a way that the people you wrote them for (even if yourself) will understand. That’s what matters. If the formula is ambigous for the intended reader, then it is a bad formula or the notations are not presented clearly enough.
BODMAS
- Brackets
- Of
- Division
- Multiplication
- Addition
- Subtraction
I can’t tell if this is trolling or not, but O = Orders lol
You’re right but when I was taught this in grade four we were taught Of, I guess Orders was probably a bit above 10 year Olds.
Let me just, ahem
1-2+3/(3+3)×2+3×6/3 = 1-2+3/(3+3)×2+1×6 = 1-2+3/(3+3)×2+6 = 7-2+3/(3+3)×2 = 7-2+3/(6+6) = 7-2+(1/2+1/2) = 5+(1/2+1/2) = 5+1=6
Ahh, yes, DMAMDSBA :P
Let’s just say BODMAS/PEMDAS isn’t all end-all be-all. They’re good, but there’s also better
For those interested, see: basic number properties
Math should be taught with postix or reverse Polish notation. It removes this ambiguity as the order of operations is left to right.
They taught it to us in Ontario, Canada as BEDMAS where the B is brackets
I guess the joke is that it wasn’t an ambiguous expression in the first place and that pedmas/bedmas wasn’t the issue, or rather using just it here is the problem?
When you have multiplication expressed as numbers joined without a symbol, that takes precedence at the current layer, where layers are created using brackets, fraction symbols, superscript exponents and concatenated multiplies.
I’m not sure this resolves all ambiguity, but it simplifies the rule to just doing multiplication/division before addition/subtraction. It seems simple enough in my mind, so I’d need to see a counter example if it does break down.
Though I hate how mainstream math problems/puzzles always end up being an order of operations problem, which I’d argue isn’t even math but more of a metamath thing. If you’re using math to solve a real problem, the correct order of operations will be determined by logic, not any conventions.
Like if it takes you 5 seconds to get in your car and 12 seconds per km traveled, and 5 seconds to get out of your car, if you multiply the 10 seconds to get in or out by the distance, you’ll have a wrong answer. It’ll always be distance traveled in km times 12 seconds/km plus the 10 seconds, and the math works on the units as well as the numbers to show you did it in a way that makes sense.
