How the hell is this not 32?

Maccy · 23 Mar 2018 at 14:00

D3K said:
I see what you did there

He loves the attention!

Luckystrike123 · 23 Mar 2018 at 14:41

touch said:
That's not the case.

Yes it is.

[53 / (3 - 20)] – 4 = -7.12

53 / [(3 - 20) - 4] = -2.53

Shocky-FM · 23 Mar 2018 at 14:43

I got it wrong and I work in finance, shows how useless these questions are in the real world.

D3K · 23 Mar 2018 at 16:38

Shocky-FM said:
I got it wrong and I work in finance, shows how useless these questions are in the real world.

How are you supposed to put formulas into cells in excel without knowing the pecking order of calculation?

You've labelled the wrong thing useless.

Greboth · 23 Mar 2018 at 16:49

Luckystrike123 said:
Yes it is.

[53 / (3 - 20)] – 4 = -7.12

53 / [(3 - 20) - 4] = -2.53

No, just no. BODMAS tells you the order to calculate the correct answer so you don’t need to add any extra parentheses. Yes you can get different answers if you add your own parentheses but, as it is written in the OP, there is no ambiguity and the is always -7.12.

Shocky-FM · 23 Mar 2018 at 16:53

D3K said:
How are you supposed to be formulas into cells in excel without knowing the pecking order of calculation?

You've labelled the wrong thing useless.

I'm doing just fine without this so I disagree, I'm probably the biggest excel geek I know.

FBi7 · 23 Mar 2018 at 17:11

Woo hoo! I also got -7.12 at the first attempt.

Go me.

Scrutinize · 23 Mar 2018 at 18:09

FedUpWithMaths said:
This was after three days of thisstuff. I am absolutely fed up with maths right now. You try doing the same tedious stuff for 3 days solid and see if it doesn't shut your brain down a bit

Either way, I passed and now need to start prepping for the next module

Well, I am delighted to have contributed to your name change

Django x2 · 23 Mar 2018 at 22:04

Scrutinize said:
If you do this on a Windows calculator in one hit even following the right order you get 32 because it overrules the division of a negative sign simply as a subtraction.

That is the only way I have managed to replicate it to 32. On paper and on any other calculator it gives the right answer.

Not if you have the Windows calculate in the right mode (Scientific), it works perfectly

D3K · 23 Mar 2018 at 22:09

Django x2 said:
Not if you have the Windows calculate in the right mode (Scientific), it works perfectly

We went over this, it's in standard mode too.

FoxEye · 23 Mar 2018 at 22:24

Feek said:
I've said this time and time again, I'd never even heard of BODMAS (or whatever you want to call it) until two or three years ago. We were taught to do brackets first and then work from left to right.

I've never heard of BODMAS/BIDMAS... ever.

We just called it "order of operators" or "operator precedence".