I mean I’m not going to claim to be a math genius but if I remember my elementary school lessons correctly the “DM” in BEDMAS/PEDMAS/BODMAS was taught to me to mean “multiplication AND division”, not “multiplication THEN division” so if you want to be pedantic it does (obliquely) include a rule that multiplication and division share the same priority.
3 Likes
That’s how I was taught the multiplication/division rule, and left to right AFTER parentheses had been solved.
1 Like
This is what I learned from my one programming class (LISP) and then over a decade of self taught R for bioinformatics:
All this is fixed if you just use enough goddamnned parentheses in the first place.
10 Likes
Right, but in the example above the shorthanded multiplication is outside the parenthesis. You do everything inside the brackets first, then move on to exponents and so on.
1 Like
Agreed. I think we’re saying the same thing.
1 Like
I do not miss programming in LISP 
. Although learning recursion was helpfull. And R sure has some.fun quirks… (The R Inferno revised | R-bloggers)
It’s the golden apple of math equations.
1 Like
Or is it a blue apple?
3 Likes
If the apple is moving towards you fast enough it looks blue
10 Likes
which for lisp i think means something like
(((8) ÷ ((2)((2) + (2)))))
and i do definitely think that’s much more clear 
1 Like
11 Likes
Turn it into a word problem:
There are 8 sandwiches divided by two groups of people. Each group has two men and two women. How many sandwiches does each person get?
Answer: One
Can you come up with a word problem where the answer is 16?
4 Likes
This thread earned someone 3 points
12 Likes
1 Like
There are enough ambiguous concepts in mathematics already without people going out of their way to invent new ambiguous problems. We’ll likely never resolve the trapezium/trapezoid naming confusion that arose from a transcription error in an early US mathematics dictionary. Likewise as to whether isosceles triangles have exactly two or at least two sides of equal length.
Edited to fix missing word.
1 Like
good point. i forgot about prefix notation. but then the heavy drinking that lisp induces can do that a person
If these numbers and the expected answer had some attached units, the problem would resolve itself immediately.
2 Likes
The answer is sixteen in metric units, but that’s like 5.4692 in imperial units. Hence all the confusion.
5 Likes
Of course: 8 sandwiches are shared equally by 2 hungry friends. Each sandwich has 2 oz beef and 2 oz turkey. How many ounces of lunch meat does each friend eat?
But that’s not the point, of course; the ambiguity is intentional.
3 Likes
