Poll: 6÷2(1+2)

6/2(1+2) = ?

  • 9

    Votes: 516 68.9%

  • 1

    Votes: 233 31.1%
  • Total voters
    749
I'm sorry, I woke up a little bit drunk from last night still and will be a little more harsh than any other time (trying to make the royal wedding a forgettable experience literally!).

For me though it seems all the maths background people who are saying the answer could be 1 are looking at it from a expensive calculator way, and not a written in one line you need all the brackets way if that makes sense. Every time you have a number then brackets it is a multiplication and because of that you just follow BODMAS.

ninja edit: This is starting to be more and more of a troll, and I got PMS'd over it, so well done OP :eek:
 
Castiel said:
The actual right answer appears to 9 or 1 depending on how you the equation is written, and it is written in a purposely ambiguous way so that people will argue incessantly on the internet.

In my humble opinion.
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You are entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts. The actual right answer is 9 - there is a standard way of processing expressions like this - it is called the standard order of operations and it is not linear BODMAS (which is a secondary school trick).

There also aren't 'different ways' to write the equation that change the meaning of it.

Code: 
6
- (1+2) = 6/2(1+2) = 6÷2(1+2) = 9
2

This is why every calculator (whether it is a basic one, a T9 or Wolfram Alpha) answers 9.

Hatter The Mad said:
As far as you can be concerned, the sky is green. You're entitled to your own opinions but not your own facts.

The standard order of operations is:

terms inside parenthesis
exponents and roots
multiplication and division
addition and subtraction


So lets start by laying it out properly - that might make it easier to understand:

Code: 
6
- (1+2)
2

Step one: terms inside parenthesis

Code: 
6
- (3)
2

Step two: exponents and roots (nothing to do)

Step three: multiplication and division

Code: 
3(3) = 9
Click to expand...

17d63b16251a10fb970ff3574a776a8454747fe0f9.jpg
 
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Hatter The Mad said:
You are entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts. The actual right answer is 9 - there is a standard way of processing expressions like this - it is called the standard order of operations and it is not linear BODMAS (which is a secondary school trick).
Click to expand...


Funny how pretty much everyone with more than basic high school maths disagrees with you though.

So the only fact here is that the question is intentionally ambiguous to illicit such debate and some of you simply can't accept that fact.:rolleyes:




I voted 9 btw......but with the clarification of the ambiguity. My wife (Maths degree) and now my Brother (Physics Dphil) both say it is nonsense but the answer would be more likely to be 1 given the reasons shown earlier. I defer to their far greater mathematical knowledge.
 
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FNGsam said:
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!!
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My mate doing a PhD in Astrophysics right now also believes that 1 would most likely be the intended answer.

In practical application of maths:
A(X+B) ALWAYS implies (XA+XB) - one term

it does not imply:
A * (X+B)

If the intention was 9 then it would be written quite simply as:

6(1+2)÷2

I don't really care if any retards can quote BODMAS which is tought to kids in elementary maths, once you've been applying maths intensively for years you'll come to realize that in that identity it would not be wrong by any stretch to assume an answer of 1. Furthermore you NEVER write out equations using the ÷ symbol for this precise reason, in solving problems you would write stuff like this out as fractions.
 
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Castiel said:
Funny how pretty much everyone with more than basic high school maths disagrees with you though.

So the only fact here is that the question is intentionally ambiguous to illicit such debate and some of you simply can't accept that fact.:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I think you can read quite a lot into the fact that the people answering 9 are also the ones who can't see or accept the ambiguity :p
 
Umm the way i have been taught maths that = 9

not going to lose sleep over it if its proven otherwise.

james.miller said:
you'd think there would be an operator in there to signify whether you are supposed to multiply or divide both sides. Maybe it's a trick question and you're not supposed to do anything, ie: the answer is 33.
Click to expand...

from the first page and makes sense why the huge debate? ;p (was going to type mass debate but giggled)
 
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Castiel said:
Funny how pretty much everyone with more than basic high school maths disagrees with you though.
Click to expand...
I have mathematics education above basic high school, if that counts.


So the only fact here is that the question is intentionally ambiguous to illicit such debate and some of you simply can't accept that fact.:rolleyes:
Click to expand...
It is ambiguous if you don't know what you're doing (standard order of operations). But that doesn't make it a fact that the solution can either be 1 or 9. The solution is 9. There are no two ways about it other than people's ignorance or misunderstanding of the subject.
 
Hatter The Mad said:
I have mathematics education above basic high school, if that counts.
Click to expand...

As do I.


Hatter The Mad said:
It is ambiguous if you don't know what you're doing (standard order of operations). But that doesn't make it a fact that the solution can either be 1 or 9. The solution is 9. There are no two ways about it other than people's ignorance or misunderstanding of the subject.
Click to expand...


Seems ironic that you mention ignorance and misunderstanding.
 
Castiel said:
As do I.

Seems ironic that you mention ignorance and misunderstanding.
Click to expand...
I've just realised something else. If you have read mathematics to a degree level, why on earth have you been using the division symbol? No one above high school uses it precisely because it obscures the standard order of operations from the plain written version, leading to mistakes like thinking the answer is 1.
 
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Hatter The Mad said:
I've just realised something else. If you have read mathematics to a degree level, why on earth have you been using the division symbol? No one above high school uses it precisely because it obscures the standard order of operations from the plain written version, leading to mistakes like thinking the answer is 1.
Click to expand...

Spot on. It's the division symbol that creates the ambiguity.

I read it as:

6 Over 2(1+2)

Which is one.

Ambiguity is ambiguous.
 
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