Poll: 6÷2(1+2)
- Thread starter Barks
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In Maths we actually lose marks for not clarifying. A lot of people now use an extreme amount of brackets just to make sure
In Maths we actually lose marks for not clarifying. A lot of people now use an extreme amount of brackets just to make sure
You really have to, to avoid trolling on such a massive level as the creator of the poll for this on Facebook.
I know it doesn't matter
But surely as there are brackets and a division sign then you would have this:
6/(division)2(multiplication)(1+(addition)2)(brackets)
Therefore you complete the content of the brackets first: 1+2 = 3
Then you multiply the coefficient of the bracket by the bracket itself (something that my school, sixth form and university teachers have always told us to do, as it is part of the brackets): 2*3 = 6
Then you complete the division: 6/6=1
I understand that the equation is written very ambiguously, but I can't see any other solution
And yes Castiel you are right, I'm just waiting for Mr. Postman to deliver me some prezzies, and this is more fun than playing cod
Our resident maths genius (my LSE educated wife) says pretty much the same, as there is nothing separating the brackets from the 2, thus the only answer you can arrive at is 1.
To equal 9, it would read 6/2*(1+2) or something like that.
But equally she says it is a nonsense formula designed specifically to confuse.
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Must have realised there were this many err... (I don't know how to put it without sounding like an ass) people in the world. I think this guy can take the prize for being the most epic troll I have seen
Just asked my coursemate Chris (and even though he is from essex, he is quite smart
) and he said much the same. But yeah, postman is knocking, PREZZIE TIME! Edit: Agree with your edit
I think that there's one thing you're missing though, the European people you're interviewing are naturally going to be showing a hunger or desire for life as they're the ones who have up'd sticks and moved to the UK so will have greater confidence levels in general so you're going to be looking at a more specific band of people. The ones you're interviewing from the UK will naturally be the full broad spectrum and will include the ones who really cannot give much of a monkeys.
If you flipped sides and went abroad you'd find exactly the same thing. I too realise it as I work in zone 3 London and most of the international people who I interview come across, generally, much better than the local population but that is because of who these internationals are and their background.
Anyway back to the subject, the people who are saying it's 9 you fools cannot see the ambiguity in the question. It is like how you're taught through life, if you've not done advanced maths before then you'll say 9. You can make an analogy to the sun. At one stage in your life you believed that the sun rose and dipped daily but you didn't know that it was because the Earth was spinning. If that's where your education stopped then without understanding the spin of the Earth you'd be entrenched in the camp of 'clearly the Earth spinning is nonsense'. Weak analogy I know but if some of you people who just went 'its 9 I did GCSE maths you idiots' bothered to read some of the posts you would see a clear distinction in what answers are coming from what educational backgrounds.
It is still ambiguous and is designed to separate those who are capable of saying it's both and those who are blind and saying it's one of them only.
+1
I came up with 1, but it's a really badly written question. Brackets first, then the way it reads seems to imply doing the multiplication next which gets you to 6/6=1.
Edit: my maths background is a mediocre physics degree
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.... I still have no idea how you got 6 out of that. You're not processing any part of that equation before the other, but changing the function - making the coefficient a multiple instead. If you're processing the coefficient first, you multiply both terms within the brackets by the coefficient, which gives (4+4).
To be honest, I think Vonhelmet's post pretty much sums it up the best:
Pretty much says it all, doesn't it?
ahhh no, I don't know whether someone else has said so but I read to this post and just no.
You can't assume that 2(1+2) is one term unless it is in brackets, maths is very much a black and white subject, if it is written on one line and no brackets are used then it has to just relate to BODMAS, so it has to be the 6/2 first then the x3 after because we are english and read left to right.
+1
I came up with 1, but it's a really badly written question. Brackets first, then the way it reads seems to imply doing the multiplication next which gets you to 6/6=1.
Edit: my maths background is a mediocre physics degree
Wow, how can you do a physics degree and not know this... physics is based entirely on maths gah...
If you started let alone finished your degree then you would know that with maths you can not imply at all, you find results based on what you know, not what you think might be true...
BODMAS rules all!!
Finished my degree ten years ago thank you.
Without more brackets the question is ambiguous. I'm not the only one with a maths background who thinks the answer is probably 1. What we need is for the question to be written properly.
It doesn't, though. It's a mechanism designed to help children with their GCSE maths. Why do you think anyone doing or done with degree level maths or a subject that relies heavily on it, like physics, comes up with 1 with a note to say the answer is ambiguous?
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This thread has over 6,000 views.
Six thousand.
Well, gosh.
Six thousand.
Well, gosh.
...not sure if serious.... ¬_¬
Caporegime
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Didn't we have the same with 0.9R=1 a while back?
It does by the way
What if it's on a treadmill?
And hey, if I cut this sandwich in half, how many sandwiches do I have?
e : Deadbeat, I know, I know man
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