The rule in order of operations says if there is multiplication or division in a problem, you go from left to right. Multiplication doesn't come first, and that parenthesis there doesn't say to do that part first. The 48/2(12) is the same thing as 48/2*12, which gets you 288.
The argument is that 48/2(12) is NOT the same thing as 48/2*12. While I'm not disagreeing with you, the formula is poorly written.
Yeah I know, I realised, but the point I was trying to make was the optical part that fooled people if the / was used was that / gave the impression that everything after / was 'underneath' (i.e. the denominator). Which is probably why the video convinced BEAT LA and so I tried to point it out. I think the strangest thing by far in this thread is how the same argument has been brought up again and again and again, until there are probably two posts written by different posters that are identical.
Had me laughing for a while. <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/bwpWw-iVKHc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
x(y) is just short hand for x*y and it is semantically identical. What is the meaning of x(y) if they are different?
They were owning up on the people saying 2. They started writing programs to solve the problem haha. then they followed that by saying it was just a stupid way to write the problem.
That's hilarious- if it was anything, it'd be either 143 or 144- how in the world would you get 145?? Here's how I figured it- and I'll go real slow for you. 2 plus 143 equals 145. 145 plus 143 equals 288. So...... .... you are correct. oops.:grin:
Replace 2 with x and set equal to 288, x should equal 2 correct? 48/2(9+3) 48/x(9+3)=288 48/(9x+3x)=288 48/12x=288 4/x=288 x= 1/72 which does not equal 2 now lets try with 2. 48/2(9+3) 48/x(9+3)=2 48/(9x+3x)=2 48/12x=2 4/x=2 x=2 /thread
48/x(9+3) does not equal 48/(9x+3x)...instead, it equals 48/x*12...and then you go from left to right, in order. If you do your example with the correct layout like I showed, then you will get x = 2, giving you an answer that is equal to 288. I feel like this has been explained over and over.
