Screwing up math to add to the confusion

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
2 + 2 x 4 = ?

16, right?

Wrong.

The correct answer, according to PEMDAS rules, is 10. Which is stupid. Simple math should be read left to right, unless there is an exponent or parentheses. Apparently this last generation was confused by that simplicity (which explains why they also don't know how to read), so they had to come up with a convoluted system in order to solve a very simple problem.

In one explanation, the explainer says that without PEMDAS you wouldn't know which numbers to solve first. So I'm guessing he also has a crazy rule so that he knows which words to read first in a sentence. When I was a kid, we didn't have order of operations for simple math - it was done left to right (again, unless there were exponents or parentheses, which are solved first). 2+2x4=16; 2+(2x4)=10.

And that is my beef for the day.
 

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
You read left to right so you do math the same way.

One would think. But I guess that was too easy so they had to screw it up. There should be one answer to 2+2x4 and everyone in America should be able to get it correct.
 

transporter

Well-Known Member
2 + 2 x 4 = ?

16, right?

Wrong.

The correct answer, according to PEMDAS rules, is 10. Which is stupid. Simple math should be read left to right, unless there is an exponent or parentheses. Apparently this last generation was confused by that simplicity (which explains why they also don't know how to read), so they had to come up with a convoluted system in order to solve a very simple problem.

In one explanation, the explainer says that without PEMDAS you wouldn't know which numbers to solve first. So I'm guessing he also has a crazy rule so that he knows which words to read first in a sentence. When I was a kid, we didn't have order of operations for simple math - it was done left to right (again, unless there were exponents or parentheses, which are solved first). 2+2x4=16; 2+(2x4)=10.

And that is my beef for the day.

Huh...maybe you should have paid better attention in the 3rd thru 6th grades???

Order of operations - lesson for third grade - Homeschool Math

MathSteps: Grade 4: Order of Operations: What Is It?

Sixth Grade Interactive Math Skills - Order of Operations
 

Chris0nllyn

Well-Known Member
Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally.

Not stupid and when you get beyond addition and multiplication of three numbers it comes in handy.
 

somdadmin

Administrator
Staff member
For as long as I've been around, the multiplier/divider takes precedence over the add/subtract operation. However, most people would write it differently to make it crystal clear:

2 + (2 x 4) = 2+ 8 = 10

Well, maybe not "most" people, but I certainly would.
 

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
For as long as I've been around, the multiplier/divider takes precedence over the add/subtract operation. However, most people would write it differently to make it crystal clear:

2 + (2 x 4) = 2+ 8 = 10

Well, maybe not "most" people, but I certainly would.

That is how the problem should be written if you want to come up with a solution of '10'.
 

Auntie Biache'

Well-Known Member
I'm so glad we're home schooling Pickle. He's working between 3rd and 5th grade level math, reading and comprehension. He's strong in math. He has an enormous vocabulary, and loves science. We start history and geography when he turns 6.
 

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
Slow outrage day, eh? :poke::)

What made me think about it is one of those meme things showed up in my FB feed this morning, and of course everyone except a couple of rocket scientists gets it wrong. And I literally mean rocket scientists - or computer programmers or someone else who works with complex equations. Normal people who do normal math do simple problems like that left to right.
 
We were taught back in grade school that multiplication/division always is computed first before addition/subtraction. The parans are implied.
 
Top