What Is The Answer To This Simple Math Problem?

[D Train]

From an English major's perspective, the correct answer depends on if there is a comma between the 4 and the (

 

[Magooglie]

Came across this equation when helping my little cousin a few months ago, figured Sherdog can take a crack at it.

8

 

[djacobox372]

The knowledge of what part of an equation to do first is only useful in a math class, in real life when you're doing your own problem solving you know the context so this knowledge isn't useful.

 

[llperez22]

i would say 1

my mind tells me the parenthesis are joined to the hip of the number they are attached to so you figure out the parenthesis first, then multiply by the parenthesis so you can remove the parenthesis all together.

 

[das omen]

The answer is 1, TS

PEMDAS

Next question

 

[therealnod]

This depends on if you're doing BEDMAS or PEMDAS, or more simply, if you're multiplying or dividing first.

I was trained with BEDMAS as the convention, so I got 4. Others who are doing PEMDAS are getting 1.

As stated in this post, the question itself is ambiguous, and should be clarified with another parenthesis:

I got to page 6 before I just couldn't help it. Look, guys, there aren't two ways to do math. There is just the one way. There are not two different answers depending on some understanding of what a bracket, brace, or parenthesis is. Parenthesis are the first to be used, brackets typically go inside the parens (to indicate that they take precedence), then curly braces will usually engulf an entire expression to indicate that this is an expression to be evaluated by itself (and all the operations within it) before any other operations are to be performed. There is nothing unclear about it, it is very straightfoward, and the answer is 1.

 

[therealnod]

This is the worst thread I've ever read on the internet.

 

[lakersfan45]

i did pemdas and got 1. but i had a gap in my basic math learning grades 4-5, i basically did no math this two year. so although i'm a biochemist who has gotten As in calculus 1 and 2 as well as many physics and chemistry university classes, i'm not one to trust when it comes to simple math.

 

[therealnod]

The knowledge of what part of an equation to do first is only useful in a math class, in real life when you're doing your own problem solving you know the context so this knowledge isn't useful.

I've read and heard some fascinatingly, stupefying, idiotic things in my time on this earth...I don't think any of them rose to quite this level of dumbfuckery, You can't possibly know the first thing about it. Math is not a fucking interpretation. It's a model of reality. Math is not an art. Math does not offer you choices.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

Excel says "4".

 

[therealnod]

Excel says "4".

You're doing it wrong. I suspect that is the main problem with some of you people. Think of how you would do it on paper, like in an actual classroom. Apparently you're sure to fuck it up any other way.

 

[Timetravel_0]

I got 42

 

[SingerAuto]

You're doing it wrong. I suspect that is the main problem with some of you people. Think of how you would do it on paper, like in an actual classroom. Apparently you're sure to fuck it up any other way.

Um, no we aren't. The way the problem is written, 4 is the answer.


Because the old acronym, while listing multiplication first, is not technically correct.

Division and multiplication hold the same weight in an equation, one is not more important than the other. Therefore, you DO NOT multiply before you divide, you simply go left to right if all that is left in an equation to get your answer.


What is the answer to this?

24/4(2+2)?

First, solve the parenthesis.
24/4(4)
24/4=6
6(4)=24

The answer is 24.

It IS NOT 24/4(2+2), 24/4(4)
24/16
1.5

 

[Lead]

This thread is always stupid. Why do people always engage it. We think it's this number and you think it's that number when in all reality, the problem is written out shitty that you get into an order of operations argument.

 

[Krav McGraw]

I'm repeating myself but in engineering school, the question would be posted like this in two rows:

___8___ = 1
4(1+1)

No ambiguity as all engineering students would calculate it as 1.

This is how I read it.

 

[lowlife]

Every so often we have to come back and play this stupid game?

 

[Andy Capp]

Came across this equation when helping my little cousin a few months ago, figured Sherdog can take a crack at it.

8

 

[Andy Capp]

This thread is always stupid. Why do people always engage it. We think it's this number and you think it's that number when in all reality, the problem is written out shitty that you get into an order of operations argument.

I think upon second consideration I am forced to agree.

The question is ambiguous and therefore has 2 answers. Math fan out of this thread.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

You're doing it wrong. I suspect that is the main problem with some of you people. Think of how you would do it on paper, like in an actual classroom. Apparently you're sure to fuck it up any other way.

Tell that to excel or take it up with whoever left out the parentheses (that would lead to an answer of "1").

 

[Flemmy Stardust]

Pretty much everyone would answer 1 if they wrote it out on paper instead of reading it with the dorky