RE: Math problem that is driving the Internet crazy
August 10, 2019 at 2:22 am
(This post was last modified: August 10, 2019 at 2:23 am by GrandizerII.)
(August 9, 2019 at 5:48 pm)A Toy Windmill Wrote: This isn't a "maths problem". It's a "maths communication problem". And in this case, the communication spins on very shallow conventions.
There wouldn't be a big issue if we decided to change the convention tomorrow and say that division now takes priority over multiplication. Changing that convention doesn't change division. It doesn't change multiplication. It doesn't change arithmetic. It doesn't change the mathematics at all. This isn't a matter of mathematics.
Who cares about the conventions we use to denote the original calculation? We might as well be arguing over whether the Earth is 93 million miles from the sun or whether it's actually 150 million kilometers from the sun.
You can use whatever convention suits you, as long as you're consistent with that. But the point is that, if we're going strictly with the current PEMDAS/BODMAS rule ... not with some outdated convention that some people still use today and not with some future convention, but with the PEMDAS rule as it is ... then the parenthesis must be resolved first and then you divide and multiply from left to right. DIstributing the 2 in to the (2+2) before dividing violates that.
And this is after all grade/high school mathematics, so whatever convention engineers or physicists or advanced mathematicians use is not relevant here.
