Poll: 6÷2(1+2)

6/2(1+2) = ?

  • 9

    Votes: 516 68.9%

  • 1

    Votes: 233 31.1%
  • Total voters
    749
Spleenus said:
Would not agree with you.

a / b(c+b) is =/= a / b * (c+b) in a practical sense. It is too open to interpretation.

This is also where you'll get the difference between pure mathematicians and engineers/physicists who use and apply maths.
Click to expand...

No, it's not.

It is, however, equal to a / (b * (c+b))

People seem to be adding the multiplication in without adding the extra set of brackets, hence the mistake of getting 9
 
Gangster said:
I guess it simple enough to learn. Calculators are meant to be used once you know the basics so you can speed things up. They're not made to rely on... and 32 people in this thread rely on calculators without knowing the basics and now got pwn3d by bidmas.

There are ones which have it intergrated... but if you knew it in the first place it wouldn't matter if your calc could/couldn't do it.
Click to expand...

"It's simple to learn" isn't a reason not to implement it.

What if the numbers were more awkward such that getting an answer by hand weren't so simple and you'd done as much as you could before going to your calculator?

7.97824 ÷ 9.634(2.4889 + 1.492371)?
 
oh and WTF is this about having to have a * sign in?

Has maths changed since I went to school or something? Anything outside of brackets is multiplied by what is in them....simples, * or no *.
 
Spleenus said:
Would not agree with you.

a / b(c+b) is =/= a / b * (c+b) in a practical sense. It is too open to interpretation.

This is also where you'll get the difference between pure mathematicians and engineers/physicists who use and apply maths.
Click to expand...

Could not agree more. This is the key point I have been trying to make.

In the mathematical models I'm working with at the moment failing to read the original equation to yield an answer of 1 would result in an incorrect result.

In a general sense, it is inherently unclear.
 
The ambiguity stems entirely from the use of the ÷ sign.

If it were all arranged as a fraction or otherwise then there'd be no problem.
 
Ksanti said:
No, it's not.

It is, however, equal to a / (b * (c+b))

People seem to be adding the multiplication in without adding the extra set of brackets, hence the mistake of getting 9
Click to expand...

Yep as in getting the answer one in any practical sense, which most people with degrees related to maths have, is because it implies b(c+b) is one expression.

Still, very ambiguous.
 
ghost101 said:
Who here, with whatever interpretation you have would write it like that without an extra set of brackets? (or perhaps a large slash)

I wouldn't.
Click to expand...

That's not the point, it's written as in the original question, I'm just asking why the calculators "standard" interpretation should be wrong or why it wouldn't apply BODMAS?
 
6/2(2+1)

Step 1: Do the calculation inside the bracket
6/2(3)

Step 2: This is the part that confuses people. Due to bodmas we divide 6 by 2. What the mistake
people make is they multiply the 3 & 2. This is wrong as 2(3) does not come under brackets in
bodmas but is multiplication. Quintessentially, the sum is now the same as (6/2)(3)

Step 3: laugh at others who think it is one.
 
There's a mnemonic if you really need it, but when you're resolving mixed terms like this you deal with multiplication > division > addition > subtraction, and as a direct resultant of that you always resolve brackets first (because they're multiplications). I can easily see why so many people would choose 9, but the answer is indisputably 1. Can't say I'm surprised that the majority is wrong though :p

Edit: seems my order is broken - division before subtraction - but it still works out teh same. You're still dividing one term (6) by another (2(1+2))
 
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