queue 9 points 3 years ago

For anyone like me who has math as their worst subject: PEMDAS.

PEMDAS is an acronym used to mention the order of operations to be followed while solving expressions having multiple operations. PEMDAS stands for P- Parentheses, E- Exponents, M- Multiplication, D- Division, A- Addition, and S- Subtraction.

So we gotta do it in the proper order. And remember, if the number is written like 2(3) then its multiplication, as if it was written 2 x 3 or 2 * 3.

So we read 8/2(2+2) and need to do the following;

Read the Parentheses of (2 + 2) and follow the order of operations within them, which gets us 4.
Then we do 2(4) which is the same as 2 x 4 which is 8
8 / 8 is 1.

The answer is 1. The old calculator is correct, the phone app which has ads backed into it for a thing that all computers were invented to do is inaccurate.

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nutcase2690 10 points 3 years ago

The problem with this is that the division symbol is not an accurate representation of the intended meaning. Division is usually written in fractions which has an implied set of parenthesis, and is the same priority as multiplication. This is because dividing by a number is the same as multiplying by the inverse, same as subtracting is adding the negative of a number.

8/2(2+2) could be rewritten as 8×1/2×(2+2) or (8×(2+2))/2 which both resolve into 16.

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Zagorath 5 points 3 years ago

You left out the way it can be rewritten which most mathematicians would actually use, which is 8/(2(2+2)), which resolves to 1.

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SmartmanApps 1 point 2 years ago

Division is usually written in fractions

Division and fractions aren't the same thing.

fractions which has an implied set of parenthesis

Fractions are explicitly Terms. Terms are separated by operators (such as division) and joined by grouping symbols (such as a fraction bar), so 1÷2 is 2 terms, but ½ is 1 term.

8/2(2+2) could be rewritten as 8×1/2×(2+2)

No, it can't. 2(2+2) is 1 term, in the denominator. When you added the multiply you broke it into 2 terms, and sent the (2+2) into the numerator, thus leading to a different answer. 8/2(2+2)=1.

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