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In reply to the discussion: 8/2(2+2) what do you come up with? [View all]Ms. Toad
(34,200 posts)112. We do.
Indenting and line spacing don't helpwith locating the misplaced parenthesis that is messing with your results. So when the meaning is clear (i.e. 7th grade math rules), I want to remove extraneous characters that make it harder to debug.
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Nothing, 16 is absolutely the correct answer ... someone else is missing something ;)
mr_lebowski
Aug 2019
#4
If that is what they are teaching children those children are going to be seriously math challenged.
honest.abe
Aug 2019
#60
No one who knows anything about calculations would write a formula like that because they'd
Hoyt
Aug 2019
#14
I mastered the equation from an former Nazi rocket fuel scientist while I was in the Army
Brother Buzz
Aug 2019
#25
I get stoned as I pray ... check this one out brother ... from last year ...
mr_lebowski
Aug 2019
#44
fraction bars function the same as brackets/parens, which is how people are getting the answer 1
fishwax
Aug 2019
#45
You're right about the keyboard, but the same principle applies w/ an elementary division symbol
fishwax
Aug 2019
#68
yeah, looking back I wound up being more confusing than I intended with my initial post
fishwax
Aug 2019
#122
No; putting it into my scientific calculator, using in place of /
muriel_volestrangler
Aug 2019
#134
A necessary minor redundancy to eliminate confusion like we see in this thread.
honest.abe
Aug 2019
#73
So those confused by this arbitrary math rule have less than 7th grade math skills??
honest.abe
Aug 2019
#113
FWIW, if you enter the equation into Google search it formats the equation exactly I wrote it.
honest.abe
Aug 2019
#123
Exactly. The point of writing equations (or anything) is to make the meaning clear to the reader.
DanTex
Aug 2019
#94
This is boring. There are rules of sequence which are arbitrary. Who cares if you don't know it?
Cicada
Aug 2019
#76
It's an ambiguous question, and depends on leftmost or rightmost binding rules
Recursion
Aug 2019
#107
A counter-example to your interpretation comes from the Feynman lectures
muriel_volestrangler
Aug 2019
#140
Hmm, what do I consider more authoritative, Richard Feynman, or Excel?
muriel_volestrangler
Aug 2019
#142
As punchlines go, that's an unexpected one, but pretty funny (nt)
muriel_volestrangler
Aug 2019
#148