this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2023
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6÷2(1+2) (programming.dev)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by wischi@programming.dev to c/memes@lemmy.ml
 

https://zeta.one/viral-math/

I wrote a (very long) blog post about those viral math problems and am looking for feedback, especially from people who are not convinced that the problem is ambiguous.

It's about a 30min read so thank you in advance if you really take the time to read it, but I think it's worth it if you joined such discussions in the past, but I'm probably biased because I wrote it :)

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[–] Perfide@reddthat.com 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (28 children)

You lost me on the section when you started going into different calculators, but I read the rest of the post. Well written even if I ultimately disagree!

The reason imo there is ambiguity with these math problems is bad/outdated teaching. The way I was taught pemdas, you always do the left-most operations first, while otherwise still following the ordering.

Doing this for 6÷2(1+2), there is no ambiguity that the answer is 9. You do your parentheses first as always, 6÷2(3), and then since division and multiplication are equal in ordering weight, you do the division first because it's the left most operation, leaving us 3(3), which is of course 9.

If someone wrote this equation with the intention that the answer is 1, they wrote the equation wrong, simple as that.

[–] SmartmanApps@programming.dev 0 points 1 year ago

leaving us 3(3)

You just did division before brackets, which violates order of operations rules. 6÷2(3)=6÷(2x3)=6÷6=1

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