• 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 @pawb.social
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    3 minutes ago

    2+5 is 8, 8-5 is 3. 8×3 is 24.

    But I also haven’t done this kind of math since 4th grade so I’m not sure if the joke is that this is the real answer or the answer you get doing it wrong… 🤔

  • MattW03@lemmy.ca
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    1 hour ago

    Let’s keep it easy. There’s 2 + all the other number who results in 15 = 17.

    Someone may mistake by doing 2+5 then the rest of the operation, resulting in 21. But is wrong.

  • vala@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 hours ago
    (* (+ 2 5) (- 8 5))
    

    Hope some LISP can clear this up

    Edit:

    ( + 2 ( * 5 ( - 8 5 ) ) )
    
  • Triasha@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    Pemdas, parenthesis first, for a total of 3. Then multiplication, 15, then addition. 17. What’s hard about this?

    • AquaTofana@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      I fucking suck at math and totally just re-proved it to myself with this problem lmao.

      It didn’t make sense to me to multiply the 3 & the 5 with zero consideration for the “2”. I have ALWAYS struggled with the steps to solve these types of equations.

      So the answer I got was 21. Some of us are just bad with numbers, I s’pose.

      • borari@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 hours ago

        The numbers in the equation and their totals are completely irrelevant to the order you perform the operations.

        I don’t think it’s an issue of “being bad with numbers”, I think the issue is not understanding the logic or being able to understand the bottom up type of thinking or something.

  • x4740N@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    Its because its:

    2+5×(8−5)

    My calculator app automatically added it when typing in what was in the image and “2+5×(8−5)” does equal 17.

    It’s absolutely the fault of the person making the social media media post for not writing it properly and confusing people.

  • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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    9 hours ago

    I got some people really angry at me when I suggested writing some math expression with parenthesis so it would be clearer. I think someone told me that order of operations is like a natural law and not a convention, and thus everyone should know it or be able to figure it out.

    • Quatlicopatlix@feddit.org
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      24 minutes ago

      Using parenthesis can really help if you want to simplify a term or need to rewrite something. I do that all the time because a lot of times you then can just cross stuff out fast on equations or get a common term that just has some factor instead of having a convolutet equation.

    • merc@sh.itjust.works
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      1 hour ago

      I got really angry because the prettier code formatter insists on removing parentheses, making things less clear. Because it’s an “opinionated” formatter you can’t tell it not to do that without using ugly hacks.

      Sure, logically there are times when you don’t need them. But, often it helps to explain what’s happening in the code when you can use parentheses to group certain things. It helps in particular when you want to use “&&” and “||” to say “do X only if Y fails”.

    • stray@pawb.social
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      6 hours ago

      I sometimes like to add unnecessary parentheses or brackets to section things off and improve legibility, but I don’t do any math stuff collaboratively, so I have no idea whether others would find that disruptive or helpful.

      • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        I do this, sometimes it helps reveal a natural pattern when some parts of earlier terms have “disappeared” to simplification

    • Alaknár@sopuli.xyz
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      7 hours ago

      I mean, there are very few ambiguous cases when you know how the order of operations works.

  • ilinamorato@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    it’s

    a badly

    written

    math

    problem

    Seriously, every time this comes up and everyone makes a huge deal out of it, I keep thinking, “none of the people writing these better be teachers.” You have to be more clear than this.

    Edit: ok, not so much this one. I just read the words and assumed the math problem was one of the ambiguous ones. Stand down, soldiers.

    • BetterDev@programming.dev
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      2 hours ago

      no

      it’s

      fucking

      not

      This is just basic algebra, this is actually how the problems in algebra I are written. What the fuck?

      • Quatlicopatlix@feddit.org
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        18 minutes ago

        Yea that is true but a lot of these questions use the division sign when they should just use a fraction and everything would have been easy to understand. If i see the devision sign and there are more than 2 elements like x=a÷b+5 i cry because if they just used x=a/(b+5) or x=a/b +5 it is just visible no ambiguity. (a/b as in a over b, idk how to do fractions on the phone if you know tell me!)

      • ilinamorato@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        You’re right. I honestly just assumed it was one of those intentionally engagement-baiting posts when I saw it and didn’t even process the problem itself.

      • ilinamorato@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        Nope, you’re right. I just read the words and assumed it was one of the terrible ones.

        This one is just…math.

    • VoterFrog@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      I think it’s reasonable if you consider the kind of physical situation it might represent.

      You visit a farm and there are 2 unpackaged apples. There are also 5 packages that hold 8 apples but 5 have been removed from each. How many apples are there?

      • ilinamorato@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        In fairness, this one isn’t nearly as bad as most of the ambiguous problems that get passed around on Facebook with multiple parentheticals and such.

        Your word problem is excellent.

    • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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      8 minutes ago

      Parentheses first then Division or Multiplication then add or subtract. PEDMAS

      8-5= 3

      3*5=15

      15+2=17

      • RedAggroBest@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        Still not how distribution works. That would be:

        2+((8 * 5)-(5 * 5))

        2+(40-25)

        2+(15)

        17

        Anything other than 17 is wrong. No matter how you go about your multiplication step.

      • axx@slrpnk.net
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        2 hours ago

        You’re trolling, but no, if you distribute you get the same result:

        2 + 5(8 - 5) =

        2 + (5 × 8) + (5 × -5) =

        2 + (40) + (-25) =

        2 + 40  - 25 = 2 + 15 = 17

  • Digit@lemmy.wtf
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    7 hours ago

    Hrmm.

    I read that as resulting in 21.

    My education system did fail me.

    I plugged that into ghci as 2+5*(8-5), and it says 17.

    :(

    I did (2+5)*(8-5).

    Doh.

    [Edit: (Double doh! Mistyped that here as 5+2. XD)]

      • potoooooooo ☑️@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        Well, it used to be a free country until common core and now this nonsense is the result. Numbers and punctuation mixed together. Pure chaos.

    • A_Chilean_Cyborg@feddit.cl
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      10 hours ago

      You do parenthesis first and then multiplications and then sums, you did parenthesis, then sums, then multiplications, wich is wrong.

      • merc@sh.itjust.works
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        50 minutes ago

        You don’t necessarily have to do parentheses first. What matters is that the things inside the parentheses are a group that you can’t break apart. If you have 10÷2+3-2*(2+1) you can do the division first 5+3-2*(2+1) then the addition outside the parentheses 8-2*(2+1) It’s just that before you do the multiplication of the term outside the parentheses, you have to handle the parentheses group, so you get 8-2*3 -> 8-6 -> 2

    • Nils@lemmy.ca
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      9 hours ago

      plugged that into ghci as 5+2*(8-5), and it says 17.

      You might want to report that error. Or, did you mean 2+5*(8-5)?

  • MrSmith@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    To all the people yelling PEMDAS and BOMBDAS or whatever - languages other than English exist.

      • MrSmith@lemmy.world
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        34 minutes ago

        It’s not like “PEMDAS” is easy to remember, as “Pemdas” as word does not exist.

        We didn’t have anything to remember it by either, you just learn the order of operations and that’s it.

    • madjo@feddit.nl
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      8 hours ago

      Meneer Van Dale Wacht Op Antwoord (Exponents, multiplication, division, root, addition, subtraction in Dutch).

      • borari@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 hours ago

        Wait is Antwoord the same meaning in Afrikaans? Does the name of the band Die Antwoord literally mean The Subtraction?

        • madjo@feddit.nl
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          1 hour ago

          I wrote the Dutch mnemonic not the actual Dutch word for multiplication etc. The letters of that mnemonic stands for “machtsverheffen”, “vermenigvuldigen”, “delen”, “worteltrekken”, “optellen”, “aftrekken”.

          Also “Antwoord” is “answer” in Dutch and Afrikaans.

    • wieson@feddit.org
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      6 hours ago

      Die Klammer sagt: „Erst komme ich!“ dann gilt die Regel „Punkt vor Strich“

      • Fredthefishlord@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        7 hours ago

        Math isn’t flexible like that though. You’re asking for flexibility where there is none. Sure pemdas is technically arbitrary but having a set convention for that is strictly necessary and good teaching.

      • zaperberry@lemmy.ca
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        6 hours ago

        Not understanding the logic doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

        We created math and devised a method to ensure that equations can be solved in a way that leads everybody to the same result. If you don’t use the rule, you don’t get the same answer as someone who does. In this circumstance, yes, you do teach by nailing down a strict rule as it’s foundational to the language (math) that we’ve created.

      • stray@pawb.social
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        6 hours ago

        But there is logic behind them.

        1+2+3=6 and 2+3+1=6 also.

        But 1+2*3 and 2*3+1 won’t come out the same if you do the calculations in just any order. It’s not always possible to order them left to right like in the second version, and if we use parentheses for everything we can end up with an illegible mess. I actually tried to type an example of how silly it could look and lost track of my own parentheses nesting before I got very far.

        Do you have any other suggestion for how to notate an equation which would make memorization of PEMDAS unnecessary?