48/2(9+3) = ???

[midget donkeys]

Wholly crap you guys are still at it. You know if everyone on this forum put this much work into their day jobs the world wide economy would not have had a recession.

Guys as stated a millions times already in this thread it depends on how you interpret the equation typed out on a computer. If someone were writing by hand on a chalk board it would be apparent which way they intended it.

My wife (the chick with a master's degree in math, who teaches math to college freshmen all day) says she has seen text books that would interpret it both ways.

It would seem a reasonable assumption that different countries on the opposite side of the planet could favor one style of text book over the other.

Or.....




















the answer is two and the rest of you are all sons of dirty whores!

 

[roy22341]

It doesn't matter whether its 2 or 288. The point of this is to show how important it is to be unambiguous when communicating.

 

[Chryst Krispies]

This thread is stupid.

 

[Stephen Hawking]

its 2 u mornos

 

[DanLights]

its 2 u mornos

LOL!!! much needed! The master has spoken hahahaha

 

[SocialNumb]

trololololo

 

[Harry Hughes]

Officially 5 star'd

 

[motomoto]

Somewhere in the middle of Texas JBroll's math senses are tingling.

hahahahaha


i think i pissed my self

 

[P-E]

Thanks Stephen.

 

[Sickan]

 

[ahjteam]

I sent the question to my math professor, hopefully he will give us a clear answer.

He said 288. Here is a roughly translated version of his message.

I remember this story: when I was math teacher in my birthplace as a young man sometime in the early 80s, this issue was also discussed. Until then landing sequence was as follows: multiplication, division and aggregation. Then it was "agreed" that the multiplication and division are carried out in the order from left to right, as they are written, so the first option [288] under the current rules is correct.
If the calculator is the OAS-logic (do not ask what the term should be), it calculates multiplication first and then the totals.
Interestingly enough, that a calculator is that kind of logic, which calculates the multiplication first.

 

[JBroll]

Somewhere in the middle of Texas JBroll's math senses are tingling.

I'm actually in California right now - that should also explain the delay.

In any case, the namecalling is just sad and there should not be nearly this much debate - it's not a matter of programmers against non-programmers, or Americans versus Europeans (I was *not* expecting to see that one, by the way), or anything like that. The question is poorly written, but not at all ambiguous. Simplifying the parentheses, we get 48/2*12 - from the juxtaposition there is an implied *, and (unless there was some previous instruction to override The Natural Order Of Things) assuming brackets around the 2 and 12 is not entirely appropriate since we perform similar operations from left to right.

In any case, there are several good reasons to *not care*. First, PARENTHESES ARE CHEAP - practice safe math, and be careful around anyone who doesn't. Second, *all things* can be resolved by throwing in any implied operation symbols, simplifying one level at a time, and moving from left to right. (Textbooks and webpages can be wrong, but this never fails.) Third, none of these STUPID FUCKING NUMBER THINGS actually exist anyway, the universe hates us and we're all going to die without any hope of understanding it, my nose NEVER STOPS ITCHING, there isn't enough booze in the world to make sex not seem icky, and I want to set the world on fire because everything is terribleDIEDIEDIEFOREVERJUSTDIE.

Jeff

 

[dani]

I'm actually in California right now - that should also explain the delay.

In any case, the namecalling is just sad and there should not be nearly this much debate - it's not a matter of programmers against non-programmers, or Americans versus Europeans (I was *not* expecting to see that one, by the way), or anything like that. The question is poorly written, but not at all ambiguous. Simplifying the parentheses, we get 48/2*12 - from the juxtaposition there is an implied *, and (unless there was some previous instruction to override The Natural Order Of Things) assuming brackets around the 2 and 12 is not entirely appropriate since we perform similar operations from left to right.

In any case, there are several good reasons to *not care*. First, PARENTHESES ARE CHEAP - practice safe math, and be careful around anyone who doesn't. Second, *all things* can be resolved by throwing in any implied operation symbols, simplifying one level at a time, and moving from left to right. (Textbooks and webpages can be wrong, but this never fails.) Third, none of these STUPID FUCKING NUMBER THINGS actually exist anyway, the universe hates us and we're all going to die without any hope of understanding it, my nose NEVER STOPS ITCHING, there isn't enough booze in the world to make sex not seem icky, and I want to set the world on fire because everything is terribleDIEDIEDIEFOREVERJUSTDIE.

Jeff

i think his brain esploded?

 

[mva801]

Successful troll thread is successful.

7 pages?

 

[SocialNumb]

JBroll's response is fucking epic!

Great shit! hahahaha

 

[Limak]

I'm actually in California right now - that should also explain the delay.

In any case, the namecalling is just sad and there should not be nearly this much debate - it's not a matter of programmers against non-programmers, or Americans versus Europeans (I was *not* expecting to see that one, by the way), or anything like that.

Jeff

I just happened to have stated an observation. The ,,2" guys all were from the US, and ,,288" guys were all from the EU. As I said, it's just an observation, not some US vs EU flamewar thing.

 

[Brandon E.]

Stupid thread is stupid. The way we are taught algebra here in america, given the equation 48/2(9+3)=x, I think ALL of us Americans would distribute first and simplify that down to 2. We're told to distribute before anything else, I don't know if that's right or not but thats how they teach it here.

 

[DanLights]

none of these STUPID FUCKING NUMBER THINGS actually exist anyway, the universe hates us and we're all going to die without any hope of understanding it,

This is the end of it all. Thank you Jeff for saving the universe once more (Broll, not Dune)

 

[SimonTaddio_Qc]

I really liked that part of Jeff's post:

Third, none of these STUPID FUCKING NUMBER THINGS actually exist anyway, the universe hates us and we're all going to die without any hope of understanding it

But this quote

there isn't enough booze in the world to make sex not seem icky

is kind of the one that got me confused the most

 

[The Front Studio]

I must be stuck in a computer world then...

^This. No doubt