Post #4243269
2026-07-30 04:13 UTC
Replies (4)
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@thegaffer@hobbitwhispers.social 2026-07-30 14:25
@SmartmanApps@dotnet.social I realized that I automatically did a mental transcription of the problem into the representation we were taught in engineering classes: (18) (2) ----------- = x (3) Start out by putting all the multiplicands on top and the "divided by numbers" (divisors?) on bottom and it gives the right answer every time. 😄
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@simon@bne.social 2026-07-30 04:54
@SmartmanApps@dotnet.social Is there a correct answer? Wikipedia suggests there isn't https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_operations#Mixed_division_and_multiplication
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@bemmesr@mathstodon.xyz 2026-07-30 15:14
@SmartmanApps@dotnet.social I just think it's generally an error to use the division symbol instead of a fraction.
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@dpnash@c.im 2026-07-30 15:27
@SmartmanApps@dotnet.social Like a lot of people, remembered PEMDAS (or the regional equivalent) to get the answer from 4th grade math class, which (because M and D are actually equal in priority) is clearly the correct answer, period. Then remembered that just about the only times I’ve seen division written like this since …well, roughly 4th grade math class, is in internet meme problems like this, because nearly every division I’ve seen in mathematics since then looks like: 3x + y ——— 2 π which nicely sidesteps most of the notational ambiguities that these internet meme problems exploit. Once I hit middle-school algebra class, I stopped writing all but the simplest multiplication-containing, and *especially* division-containing, expressions like the meme problems *precisely because it is awkward and error-prone to do it that way*, and I am utterly unsurprised a lot of people “get those wrong” even when they understand elementary arithmetic perfectly well.