Another Math Problem

[Stuart 0366]

Which refers to my earlier comment about teaching the young now and in 3 generations everyone will learn it right (as far as the laws of maths go).

A big thanks to all that have contributed to this, what ended as a debate. I will endeavour to find more anomalies to try and sharpen our collective brains LOL

[jojo1212]

3+(4x5)=23
as you thought
thats what i know

[TENFIRE]

Math <3
//TENFIRE

[masur123]

I often wonder how many pages new subscribers go through before they decide to post....

[a911]

I often wonder how many pages new subscribers go through before they decide to post....

4me it was less than 3 pages.......!

[Grizz]

first time seeing this post but i got through 2 pages before my eyes glazed over.

answer is 35 without brackets, 23 with

(unless i missed something in maths class about working right to left, which is possible, i was either asleep or winking at the girls most of the time)

[flyingpig]

DOesnt matter if it has brackets or not - Have you not heard of BODMAS?

That is the basic rule for Maths, and not at genius level.. It is basic....

[richy_rich]

Good question. Amongst other things I give lectures in computer science and for me the answer is 23. However, threads like this are great to read though because I love to find out why this stuff isn't obvious to others and there's always the chance that I'm wrong and, as a scientist at heart I love being wrong and challenging my view of the world.

However, it seems to me that teaching people to evaluate simple sums 'from left to right' is not a good approach... It also raises an interesting question about the use of calculators in maths classes

BTW the *only* way to get to 35 is to use brackets, *not* the other way around..

3+4x5=23

3+(4x5)=23

(3+4)x5=35

That's kind of what brackets are for; to change the precedence of other operators (or, if absolutely required, for clarity of expression...)
The second equation in the list above is suboptimal because it's got unnecessary parentheses in it, I'd knock marks of my students for this sort of abuse

[Grizz]

im gonna sue my ~~~~in maths teacher..............

[richy_rich]

L0L. Lots of people should, it's funny how often you'll hear people admit, 'oh, I can't do maths' but you very rarely hear folks being so casual about admitting they can't read or write.

I don't think maths (or science) are being taught very well these days - maybe nothing is, but it's harder to tell with the touchy-feely, nonsense subjects like literature and arts

[Medalloairbags]

when performing different operations on a problem, the rule says that multiplications are first operated and then the addition or subtraction, so if you have 1 + 3 * 5 + 4, first perform 3 * 5 and then add all