48÷2(9+3) = ???

charles_92688

a) 2

b) 288

Hank Scorpio

bomdas would say it's 2, strange thread

charles_92688

nuxxx wrote: »

bomdas would say it's 2, strange thread

Who's Bomdas? Does he post?

Anyway, he would be wrong.

Madame K

nuxxx wrote: »

bomdas would say it's 2, strange thread

PEMDAS would agree.

*shrugs*

charles_92688

Madame K wrote: »

PEMDAS would agree.

*shrugs*

Sorry, wrong. PEMDAS would not say 2 unless he was smoking too much pot.

bytesize

yeah the answer is 2.

The rules states that you always do what's in the brackets first. then directly related to the brackets. Then based on signs outside you do those.

First: 9+3=12
Then: 2*12=24
Then: 48÷24=2

Simples

sponsoredwalk

Do you know what a binary operation is?

charles_92688

bytesize wrote: »

yeah the answer is 2.

The rules states that you always do what's in the brackets first. then directly related to the brackets. Then based on signs outside you do those.

First: 9+3=12 Yep
Then: 2*12=24 Nope
Then: 48÷24=2

Simples

Sorry, spin again.

charles_92688

sponsoredwalk wrote: »

Do you know what a binary operation is?

Who is "you"?

sponsoredwalk

charles_92688 wrote: »

Who is "you"?

Obviously you, though you raise an interesting psycho-philosophical point on the nature of identity...

I think I just noticed the irony in asking the question...

charles_92688

sponsoredwalk wrote: »

Obviously you, though you raise an interesting psycho-philosophical point on the nature of identity...

It wasn't obvious since your post A) didn't quote anyone and followed a post of someone other than me.

So, what do you think the answer is? Do you think it is 2?

sponsoredwalk

charles_92688 wrote: »

It wasn't obvious since your post A) didn't quote anyone and followed a post of someone other than me.

So, what do you think the answer is? Do you think it is 2?

Yes, I think it's 2, you got me. Do you know what a binary operation is?

cedan

Oh dear

bytesize

Charles I can see where you are coming from.

You are assuming that once we finish with the 9+3 inside the brackets, then we are finished with them and we should move on to working from the left to right.

But that is not the case. The brackets must first be removed completely before we can move to the next set of steps. Therefore we must multiply what is directly connected to the brackets and then we can work with the ÷.

charles_92688

sponsoredwalk wrote: »

Yes, I think it's 2, you got me. Do you know what a binary operation is?

It's 288. You'd be surprised how many engineers and mathematicians mistakenly would say it was 2. Makes me wonder how many designs have failed due to a careless math mistake. "Ya, it's 2. Now, let's go to production and build the plane...." Then they wonder why the plane crashed.

Go ahead, tell us what a binary operation is.

charles_92688

bytesize wrote: »

Charles I can see where you are coming from.

You are assuming that once we finish with the 9+3 inside the brackets, then we are finished with them and we should move on to working from the left to right.

But that is not the case. The brackets must first be removed completely before we can move to the next set of steps. Therefore we must multiply what is directly connected to the brackets and then we can work with the ÷.

Matlab, Google, and Excel all assume the same things I do. So do the rules of the order of operations.

im invisible

I dont know, but i do know there are 16 cups in a gallon, if thats any help

charles_92688

im invisible wrote: »

I dont know, but i do know there are 16 cups in a gallon, if thats any help

That wouldn't even help on this thread:

More A in B or more B in A?

sponsoredwalk

charles_92688 wrote: »

It's 288. You'd be surprised how many engineers and mathematicians mistakenly would say it was 2. Makes me wonder how many designs have failed due to a careless math mistake. "Ya, it's 2. Now, let's go to production and build the plane...." Then they wonder why the plane crashed.

Do you agree that I can write 2÷4 as 2·(4)⁻¹?
2/4 = 2÷4 = 2·(4)⁻¹
48÷2(9+3) = 48·[2(9+3)]⁻¹ = 48·[24]⁻¹ = 48÷24 = 2
What's wrong with this, what iron-clad rule of logic have I broken to cause a future challenger to crash?

sponsoredwalk

Did you know that particle physicists think the speed of light is 1? What fools - google says otherwise :rolleyes:

charles_92688

sponsoredwalk wrote: »

48÷2(9+3) = 48·[2(9+3)]⁻¹
What's wrong with this?

The problem as written is 288 doesn't equal 2.

These aren't equal to each other.

sponsoredwalk

charles_92688 wrote: »

these aren't equal to each other.

Why not?

charles_92688

sponsoredwalk wrote: »

Why not?

Because the left side of the equals sign is 288 and the right side is 2.

sponsoredwalk

charles_92688 wrote: »

Because the left side of the equals sign is 288 and the right side is 2.

So in other words you disagree that 2÷4 = 2·(4)⁻¹, which implies you're making no sense...

charles_92688

sponsoredwalk wrote: »

you're making no sense...

It is 288.

kenyard

why do they have to make things like this. if you type it into an excel sheet it will tell you you are missing brackets... and its right. there needs to be one more set orf brackets to specify exactly what to do and until such a time as they are added, the answer can be either or.
my 2c.
interesting to see the top post on this page though which actually lists the orders to do stuffs in when its "wrong"

sponsoredwalk

charles_92688 wrote: »

It is 288.

Why?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2WzWbQSPGw

One of Bertrand Russell’s lesser-known pro-secular works is a 1951 piece for New York Times Magazine called “The Best Answer to Fanaticism: Liberalism.” In this, he wrote a “Liberal Decalogue,” what might be better called today a “Secular 10 Commandments”:

...

4. When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavour to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.
http://commonsenseatheism.com/?p=10937

charles_92688

kenyard wrote: »

if you type it into an excel sheet it will tell you you are missing brackets...

No it (Excel 2010) doesn't:

wonderfulname

I see your problem, google etc is seeing (48÷2)(9+3) as opposed to 48/2(9+3), multiplying unnecessarily, the answer is 2, 288 is an error I find it hard to believe you actually see as true given we're talking about a primary school level of maths, someone found a curio on the interwebs and decided to troll the mathematicians?

charles_92688

wonderfulname wrote: »

the answer is 2, 288 is an error

The answer is 288.

event

if ye knew the answer, why did you ask the question?

wonderfulname

Well if you're going to keep parroting that line you may as well pick an example where the answer is 42...

Do you understand the difference between how humans and computers process information?

charles_92688

wonderfulname wrote: »

Do you understand the difference between how humans and computers process information?

I don't know if I understand the difference, but that is irrelevant to the math problem in the original post.

charles_92688

event wrote: »

if ye knew the answer, why did you ask the question?

To increase the click count on this website?

Sparks43

wonderfulname wrote: »

Well if you're going to keep parroting that line you may as well pick an example where the answer is 42...

The answer is 42 and always will be


Now whats that damn question:D

D-Generate

Silly question due to the presentation of the questiona as an inline query. If the question were to be posed by someone writing it on a piece of paper the true syntax of the query would be evident as the brackets would either be placed as the numerator or denominator of the operation or adjacent to the division operation altogether.

As much as it pains me to say this, technically the correct answer as per the rules of maths would be 2. However, that being said, I would expect a computer to evaluate it as 244 as it assumes a structure similar to that which someone would write out.

hyperborean

D-Generate wrote: »

Silly question due to the presentation of the questiona as an inline query. If the question were to be posed by someone writing it on a piece of paper the true syntax of the query would be evident as the brackets would either be placed as the numerator or denominator of the operation or adjacent to the division operation altogether.

As much as it pains me to say this, technically the correct answer as per the rules of maths would be 2. However, that being said, I would expect a computer to evaluate it as 244 as it assumes a structure similar to that which someone would write out.

You should throw that computer in the bin,


Its 288, reply and answer

sponsoredwalk

hyperborean wrote: »

You should throw that computer in the bin,


Its 288, reply and answer

Think you were logged into the wrong troll account in responding here...

im invisible

he might have, but it is 288.

do inside brackets first, then multiply/divide from left to right

sponsoredwalk

im invisible wrote: »

he might have, but it is 288.

do inside brackets first, then multiply/divide from left to right

By what law of nature is that the correct procedure to follow?

im invisible

bomdas/ bedmas/ whatever your having yourself

sponsoredwalk

im invisible wrote: »

bomdas/ bedmas/ whatever your having yourself

Lets take what I'm having, where in this list can we justify that only one of the ways is correct?

bnt

If you do this on a computer, you usually have to explicitly insert the * before the brackets - and when you do that there's no ambiguity. Because brackets are first in the BOMDAS order, the natural tendency is to evaluate them first until they're gone. I have two calculators (HP 35s, Casio FX-991ES) that understand the x(y) notation without adding a *, and both also give me 288.

But there's no point getting all dramatic about this. If I was writing that down, I wouldn't allow that ambiguity to occur in the first place.

lestat21

The fact that such a simple question has caused so much confusion on the maths thread made me smile... 48 / 2(9+3) =

Brackets first 9+3 = 12
No indices to worry bout (sorry charles)
Multiplication 12 x 2 = 24
Division 48/24 = 2

the only way you could get 288 is if the division and multiplication operations changed places
48 x 2 /(9+3) = 288

event

charles_92688 wrote: »

To increase the click count on this website?

you're asking a question there again.
Do you not know why you asked the question?

TheBody

Bad maths makes baby Jesus cry!!

im invisible

last edited by lestat21; Today at 20:23. Reason: Math Error

indeed

Miss Lockhart

Despite this being a well-known meme/troll around a long time, it is an interesting question.

I would say 288 according to BEMDAS.

Brackets
Exponents
Multiplication/Division
Addition/Subtraction

Multiplication/Division and Addition/Subtraction have equal priority and should be carried out from left to right.

I think part of the problem is that people seem think that they must follow BEMDAS in that exact order. Note that in many places BEDMAS is taught, reversing the D and M. Doesn't matter because they have equal priority.

As others have said, the whole problem is caused by very poor notation that would not be acceptable in any serious context.

I also see where the "2" people are coming from. In fact I naturally lean to this method because I naturally seem to give priority to implied multiplication such as the 2(12) part. But I overrule that urge because I have been taught to follow the order of operations a certain way.

Pembily

sponsoredwalk wrote: »

Think you were logged into the wrong troll account in responding here...

Please keep on topic and if you have an issue with a post report the post, don't make assumptions on posters.

Yakuza

48÷2(9+3)

Re-writing with the implied multiplication before the brackets:
48÷2x(9+3)

Resolve the term in the brackets:
48÷2x(12) = 48÷2x12

These are equivalent as multiplication is commutative:
48÷2x12 = 12x48x÷2

No matter what way you cut it, the answer is 288.
The only way the answer could be 2 would be if the original formula was written as:
48÷(2(9+3)).

As stated previously BODMAS dictates how these things are calculated, any deviations from this are, well, deviant!

charles_92688

lestat21 wrote: »

The fact that such a simple question has caused so much confusion on the maths thread made me smile... 48 / 2(9+3) =

Brackets first 9+3 = 12
No indices to worry bout (sorry charles)
Multiplication 12 x 2 = 24
Division 48/24 = 2

the only way you could get 288 is if the division and multiplication operations changed places
48 x 2 /(9+3) = 288

Yes, 9 + 3 = 12 so you're left with

48÷2*12

At this point the correct (and there is only one "correct") operation is to divide 48 by 2 then multiply by 12 which turns into 24*12 = 288. There is no other way to approach this. It is not ambiguous. It is not open to interpretation.

Those who try to weasel word it into an answer of 2 by claiming something about humans and computers "thinking" differently or "it would be nice if there were extra brackets" or "nobody would ever write it that way" are wrong.

The correct answer is 288.