• cmhe@lemmy.world
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    12 minutes ago

    I don’t get why these kind of post crop up so often.

    The answer to them doesn’t matter and these aren’t really math questions, because there is no context given. This is just endless discussions about different people having different assumptions on notation used there…

    In real math, where the numbers mean something, good and consistent notation is important, but not necessary, because the order of operations or what those operations are exactly would be clear through the context of these formulas. Good notation just makes it easier to spot errors, work with formulas or to avoid confusion.

    Here is what I would assume this formula could mean. Someone has 2 apples and 5 bags of apples that initially came with 8 apples each inside, but someone else ate 5 apples from each of these bags.

    With this context it is pretty clear what the answer would be.

  • ViperActual@sh.itjust.works
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    2 hours ago

    2+5(8-5)

    For anyone wanting to see a different way of solving it with distribution:

    2+58-55 2+40-25 42-25 17

    So long as you follow the basic math rules, you can solve it in many different ways to get the same result.

  • MattW03@lemmy.ca
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    3 hours 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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    4 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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    8 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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      4 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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        4 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.

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 @pawb.social
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    2 hours 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… 🤔

  • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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    11 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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      2 hours 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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      3 hours 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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      8 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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        8 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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      9 hours ago

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

  • x4740N@lemmy.world
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    5 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.

  • Digit@lemmy.wtf
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    9 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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        6 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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      12 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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        3 hours 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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      11 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)?