Waldo Posted March 13, 2012 Author Share Posted March 13, 2012 My A level maths says he's right. You might want to look at yours. Great! Please enligten me!... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biotechpete Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 My A level maths says he's right. You might want to look at yours. Care to explain the reason? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barleycorn Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 A highly amusing thread, Denlin continues to give the wrong answer despite several links explaining the order of precedence of operators. Sometimes the stupid is just to thick to penetrate. Maybe this link, which is specifically aimed at children, will help. BODMAS B Brackets first O Orders (ie Powers and Square Roots, etc.) DM Division and Multiplication (left-to-right) AS Addition and Subtraction (left-to-right) jb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
max Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 My A level maths says he's right. You might want to look at yours. I see your A level and raise you my BSc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WasThatWise Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 The answer is "be more careful about how you ask the question" and also that the question when asked verbally coud have put an emphasis on 5+3 "pause" times 0, which would have given it a different meaning, however bodmas and Wikipedia seem to agree that in this case the answer to the written question is 5 as the multiplication takes precedence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waldo Posted March 13, 2012 Author Share Posted March 13, 2012 The question was posed in written form (on the TV show), with no brackets. The contestant actually said '15'! Which was wrong. Luckily the kid's answer was '0', which Noel said was correct, and so they played on... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ms Macbeth Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 I was wondering if denlin was performing the operations in the order they appear? Such that.. 2 + 3 x 4 = 20 [2 + 3, is 5, times 4, equals 20] 4 x 3 + 2 = 14 [4 x 3, is 12, add 2, equals 14] I'm trying to better understand the process, by which denlin is arriving at the conclusion that 2 + 3 x 4 = 20. Denlin is asserting that the answer to the OP question is 0, which I am disputing, and trying my best to understand exactly how that conclusion is being reached. I would imagine that is exactly what she is doing, just as I would. I went to school in the 50s and early 60s, and won the arithmetic prize when I left at 15. I went on to do an arithmetic O level at college (separate subject from maths in Scotland). We were taught to work from left to right except when there were brackets. I didn't know the rules had changed! I thought my children (70s/80s) did sums in exactly the same way. When did this change? Or, does * mean something different to x? My answer to 2 + 3 x 4 would also have been 20, I wouldn't even have considered calculating it any other way. And my answer to 4 x 3 + 2 would be 14. Perhaps I need to get my head round modern arithmetic as I have grandchildren who will be doing it differently. I'd have been telling them they were wrong! Edit: I've just spotted BODMAS! I'd never seen that before, certainly not during my school days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
splodgeyAl Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 20........ 14........... Hmmmm. Aye, it *is* one of those Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
max Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 I would imagine that is exactly what she is doing, just as I would. I went to school in the 50s and early 60s, and won the arithmetic prize when I left at 15. I went on to do an arithmetic O level at college (separate subject from maths in Scotland). We were taught to work from left to right. I didn't know the rules had changed! I thought my children (70s/80s) did sums in exactly the same way. When did this change? Or, does * mean something different to x? My answer to 2 + 3 x 4 would also have been 20, I wouldn't even have considered calculating it any other way. And my answer to 4 x 3 + 2 would be 14. Perhaps I need to get my head round modern arithmetic as I have grandchildren who will be doing it differently. I'd have been telling them they were wrong! You are right, you do work from left to right but only after the precedence rules have been followed. See BODMAS above. Both myself and my OH were taught maths in the 50s and 60s and we remember BODMAS from that era. PS My OH taught level 2 maths at an FE college and her students could grasp this basic principle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyclone Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 I was wondering if denlin was performing the operations in the order they appear? Such that.. 2 + 3 x 4 = 20 [2 + 3, is 5, times 4, equals 20] 4 x 3 + 2 = 14 [4 x 3, is 12, add 2, equals 14] I'm trying to better understand the process, by which denlin is arriving at the conclusion that 2 + 3 x 4 = 20. Denlin is asserting that the answer to the OP question is 0, which I am disputing, and trying my best to understand exactly how that conclusion is being reached. It's pretty obvious that he is just executing the operators from left to right isn't it. (2+3)*4 is 20, this is how he's reaching that conclusion, ignoring the fact that * should be resolved first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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