48÷2(9+3) = ???

[Undertoad]

Yes but you got that degree off the back of a cereal box and I claim victory.

[monster]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

Yes but you got that degree off the back of a cereal box and I claim victory.

No, I didn't, and PEMDAS backs me up. Claim all the victory you like, you're still wrong.

Juniper, it does matter, that's why it's PEMDAS and nothing else. It just doesn't matter very often.

Math is not left to right -maybe that's why left-handers are good at it?

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by monster

No, I didn't, and PEMDAS backs me up. Claim all the victory you like, you're still wrong.

PEMDAS

A common technique for remembering the order of operations is the abbreviation "PEMDAS", which is turned into the phrase "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally". It stands for "Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication and Division, and Addition and Subtraction". This tells you the ranks of the operations: Parentheses outrank exponents, which outrank multiplication and division (but multiplication and division are at the same rank), and these two outrank addition and subtraction (which are together on the bottom rank). When you have a bunch of operations of the same rank, you just operate from left to right. For instance, 15 ÷ 3 × 4 is not 15 ÷ 12, but is rather 5 × 4, because, going from left to right, you get to the division first. If you're not sure of this, test it in your calculator, which has been programmed with the Order of Operations hierarchy. For instance, typesetting this into a graphing calculator, you will get:

• 15/3*4=20

Using the above hierarchy, we see that, in the "4 + 2×3" question at the beginning of this article, Choice 2 was the correct answer, because we have to do the multiplication before the addition.
(Note: Speakers of British English often instead use "BODMAS", which stands for "Brackets, Orders, Division and Multiplication, and Addition and Subtraction". Since "brackets" are the same as parentheses and "orders" are the same as exponents, the two acronyms mean the same thing.)

[SamIam]

Why not just write it as (48/2)(9+3) in the first place?

[SteveDallas]

Originally Posted by SamIam

Why not just write it as (48/2)(9+3) in the first place?

Because then we wouldn't have to get into a fucking argument about the conventions of mathematical notation.

[Aliantha]

Originally Posted by SteveDallas

Because then we wouldn't have to get into a fucking argument about the conventions of mathematical notation.

lol Is that the reason? hehe