Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
Current time: March 28, 2024, 1:40 pm

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
simple maths or simple minds?
#1
simple maths or simple minds?
50+50-25x0+2+2=?

It's ridiculous how many get this wrong on the net.
It's basically a sad reflection of the education system of the west ...

Maths flew us to Mars
No maths flew us into buildings...
No God, No fear.
Know God, Know fear.
Reply
#2
RE: simple maths or simple minds?
Does it have to do with the stupid FOIL rule? It's like math decided to team up with a trickster to intentionally trip you up. It's really dumb.
Reply
#3
RE: simple maths or simple minds?
5 out of 4 people struggle with fractions.
Reply
#4
RE: simple maths or simple minds?
Not at work.

So..... the answer is something like 104? Maybe?

*Shrug*
Reply
#5
RE: simple maths or simple minds?
2+2=1. Quick maths
Reply
#6
RE: simple maths or simple minds?
(April 5, 2021 at 1:22 am)░I░G░N░O░R░A░M░U░S ░ Wrote: 50+50-25x0+2+2=?

It's ridiculous how many get this wrong on the net.
It's basically a sad reflection of the education system of the west ...

Maths flew us to Mars
No maths flew us into buildings...

At least part of the difficulty is that the order of operations is a *convention*. We have decided that multiplication takes priority over addition and subtraction. But there is nothing other than our convention to dictate this. Hence, those who don't know or don't remember the convention cannot reconstruct it just from the mathematical operations themselves.

This is why parentheses are used in mathematics: to resolve such ambiguities. But, that is not the only way to do this. We could use reverse Polish notation instead of the conventional one and such ambiguities are eliminated without parentheses.

So, in the above expression, here are the two RPN possibilities:

50 50 + 25 - 0 x 2 + 2 +

or
50 50 + 25 0 x - 2 + 2 +

The first has a value of 4 and the second has a value of 104.

(April 5, 2021 at 1:26 am)Eleven Wrote: Does it have to do with the stupid FOIL rule? It's like math decided to team up with a trickster to intentionally trip you up. It's really dumb.

It's more that mathematicians have found all the strange alternatives and have figured out ways to reduce the ambiguity. FOIL, for example, follows from the properties of addition and multiplication. I actually find FOIL to be a very *bad* way to explain what is going on because it fails once you have more than two terms of two terms multiplied together.
Reply
#7
RE: simple maths or simple minds?
42, 42 is the answer.
Reply
#8
RE: simple maths or simple minds?
Two plus two equals five, Winston.
Urbs Antiqua Fuit Studiisque Asperrima Belli

Home
Reply
#9
RE: simple maths or simple minds?
(April 6, 2021 at 2:32 am)Nomad Wrote: Two plus two equals five, Winston.

For large enough values of 2, this is true.
If you get to thinking you’re a person of some influence, try ordering somebody else’s dog around.
Reply
#10
RE: simple maths or simple minds?
(April 6, 2021 at 2:32 am)Nomad Wrote: Two plus two equals five, Winston.

In those systems where 4=5, this is true.
Reply



Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  What does maths add up to? MarcusA 7 835 September 21, 2023 at 9:22 pm
Last Post: LinuxGal
  Solve this simple equation (help pls) ErGingerbreadMandude 46 7637 December 7, 2017 at 10:15 pm
Last Post: dyresand
  Can God be seen in the maths? Dropship 136 28777 July 17, 2017 at 3:27 pm
Last Post: Brian37
Question Maths problem to solve Aractus 24 4774 October 22, 2016 at 6:16 am
Last Post: Longhorn
  Maths vs. Music - Tuning and harmony Thumpalumpacus 60 10501 September 13, 2016 at 7:04 am
Last Post: bennyboy
  Maths proves 1=0.999.. thus ends in self contradiction shakuntala 11 5831 December 21, 2014 at 3:57 pm
Last Post: Thumpalumpacus
  A simple arithmetical challenge. Tiberius 18 5440 October 15, 2013 at 8:57 am
Last Post: Tiberius
  Maths test fr0d0 23 9007 June 18, 2013 at 9:48 am
Last Post: Categories+Sheaves
  A simple question. Tiberius 55 22939 March 18, 2011 at 3:30 pm
Last Post: Zenith
  Simple processes can't create complex patterns. lrh9 2 2107 September 14, 2010 at 9:32 pm
Last Post: lrh9



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)