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Math problem that is driving the Internet crazy

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Math problem that is driving the Internet crazy
BrianSoddingBoru4 Offline
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#41
RE: Math problem that is driving the Internet crazy
February 24, 2020 at 4:43 pm
There are three kinds of people in this world:  Those who understand maths and those who don't.

Boru
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Alex K Offline
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#42
RE: Math problem that is driving the Internet crazy
February 24, 2020 at 7:06 pm
(February 24, 2020 at 4:43 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: There are three kinds of people in this world:  Those who understand maths and those who don't.

Boru

F u

by which I refer to a rare stable substance
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition

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ignoramus Offline
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#43
RE: Math problem that is driving the Internet crazy
February 24, 2020 at 7:17 pm
[Image: 3q6jtc.jpg]




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Gawdzilla Sama Offline
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#44
RE: Math problem that is driving the Internet crazy
February 24, 2020 at 7:41 pm
The answer is "42".
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Fireball Offline
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#45
RE: Math problem that is driving the Internet crazy
February 24, 2020 at 10:37 pm
(February 24, 2020 at 4:43 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: There are three kinds of people in this world:  Those who understand maths and those who don't.

Boru

There are 10 kinds of people who don't understand binary. Those who do and those who don't.

There are 10 kinds of people who don't understand trinary.  Those who do, those who don't, and those who may.

Hehe
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polymath257 Offline
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#46
RE: Math problem that is driving the Internet crazy
February 25, 2020 at 8:42 am
Ever hear of the mathematical spy that got caught because someone gave him the sine and he didn't know the cosine?

But that's going off on a tangent.
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Anomalocaris Offline
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#47
RE: Math problem that is driving the Internet crazy
February 25, 2020 at 10:50 am
(February 25, 2020 at 8:42 am)polymath257 Wrote: Ever hear of the mathematical spy that got caught because someone gave him the sine and he didn't know the cosine?

But that's going off on a tangent.

That’s hyperbolic
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polymath257 Offline
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#48
RE: Math problem that is driving the Internet crazy
February 25, 2020 at 1:06 pm
(February 25, 2020 at 10:50 am)Anomalocaris Wrote:
(February 25, 2020 at 8:42 am)polymath257 Wrote: Ever hear of the mathematical spy that got caught because someone gave him the sine and he didn't know the cosine?

But that's going off on a tangent.

That’s hyperbolic

I feel like I'm going in circles.
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Gawdzilla Sama Offline
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#49
RE: Math problem that is driving the Internet crazy
February 25, 2020 at 1:13 pm
(February 25, 2020 at 8:42 am)polymath257 Wrote: Ever hear of the mathematical spy that got caught because someone gave him the sine and he didn't know the cosine?

But that's going off on a tangent.

That's some kind of maths joke, I suspect. Truce
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Smaug Offline
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#50
RE: Math problem that is driving the Internet crazy
April 27, 2020 at 8:55 pm (This post was last modified: April 27, 2020 at 8:57 pm by Smaug.)
(August 3, 2019 at 2:09 am)Grandizer Wrote: What is the correct answer to:

8 divided by 2(2+2)

Is it 1? Or is it 16?

At first, I said 1, but then I looked at it again and reckoned it's actually 16. But it could be 1, though ... huh?

Then I realized the trick here is that parenthesis, should we take care of that parenthesis first (and then have 1 as the answer), or should we treat it as a multiplication and hence the answer should be 16.

I think the answer has to be 16, but if so, then PEDMAS guideline would be a little misleading.
Ok, so here's why I think the answer is 16:

Before anything else, let's rephrase the problem a little so it's clearer what the answer should be later:

8 divided by 2 times (2 + 2)

First take care of parentheses:

8 divided by 2 times (4)

becomes

8 divided by 2 times 4

And then we have multiplication and division left, same level of precedence, so we start left to right

8 divided 2 = 4, and 4 times 4 = 16

There are two reasons for the apparent ambiguity.

The first one is the choice of notation. You can potentially interpret the initial problem both as 8 / [2 * (2 + 2)] and as (8 / 2) * (2 + 2) which brings different results.

The other thing is that division is a non-associative operation. For example,
(8 / 2) / 2 is not equal to 8 / (2 / 2) and (8 / 2) * 2 is not equal to 8 / (2 * 2).
You can't move the parentheses (i. e. change the order of operations) without changing the result.
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Atheist Forums › Science › Mathematics v
Math problem that is driving the Internet crazy

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