6÷2(1+2) (A math topic)

6÷2(1+2) A trick math question I saw on another place.

What do you think the answer is? 1 or 9? Solution is spoilered out below.

Combine parentheses expression first. End result at this step is 6÷2(3).

Multiply. End result at this step is 6÷6.

Then divide and solve. End result of the expression is 1.

Nifty side note: Google will give the other answer because calculators do not follow PEMDAS (Parenthesis, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction) order of operations explicitly.

"Allah may guide their bullets, but Jesus helps those who aim down the sights."

...You're supposed to switch the Division and Multiplication order around, you know.

It isn't set in stone. With Multiplication/Division, you go left to right. Same with Addition/Subtraction. The answer is 9.

edited 30th Apr '11 2:43:55 PM by Zersk

ᐅᖃᐅᓯᖅ ᐊᑕᐅᓯᖅ ᓈᒻᒪᔪᐃᑦᑐᖅ

Actually, the parse for multiplication and division is supposed to go left to right unless parenthesized otherwise.

Ninjad.

edited 30th Apr '11 2:44:43 PM by Pykrete

I think you may of missed a step, do you mean 6÷2 + (1+2)?

edited 30th Apr '11 2:45:03 PM by joeyjojo

hashtagsarestupid

Use prefix notation to avoid this worthless controversy.

edited 30th Apr '11 2:45:17 PM by Tzetze

[1] This facsimile operated in part by synAC.

Reverse Polish, bitches.

I read it as 1 and didn't see the trick. I haven't seen a division sign used in forever though, usually they just use the horizontal line thing. Although I suppose that implies parentheses.

Also: Division is multiplication. It's multiplication by 1/x.

edited 30th Apr '11 2:51:29 PM by Clarste

As the others have said, the answer actually is nine, at least as I've been taught— the "Multiplication and Division" in PEMDAS are the same step, as are Adding and Subtraction", so you go from left to right. You add what's in the parantheses (1+2=3), then go from left to right again (6/2=3, 3*3=9)

They lost me. Forgot me. Made you from parts of me. If you're the One, my father's son, what am I supposed to be?

^^^Psh, damn forther

This is what I think of this.

I am mad

[1] This facsimile operated in part by synAC.

That answer is irrelevant because no sane person would write math like that.

The problem is an unclear step, therefore, I'm going to declare the whole operation invalid.

Fortunately it's a meaningless group of numbers, so who cares?

6÷2*(1+2)

6÷2*(3)

3*3

9

Multiplication and division have the same priority and it goes from left to right.

The thing about making witty signature lines is that it first needs to actually be witty.

The solution set is obviously {1,9}. ...if we assume the question was well-formed in the first place, which it isn't.

Da Rules excuse all the inaccuracy in the world. Listen to them, not me.

The image board that must not be named, most likely. (As that is where I saw it :p )

Omission of the operator indicates multiplication. Just like 2y reads as '2 times y'.

It's 9, for reasons explained above.

6/(2*(1+2)) would be 1. Google it.

"Why don't you write books people can read?"-Nora Joyce, to her husband James

Because I feel it needs repeating, the answer is because multiplication and division have the same precedent and are evaluated left to right.

Oh come on Tze. Stack-tokenizable notation is awesome.

It doesn't bear repeating. It's a useless question. If somebody writes an expression like this, slap them.

^REAL MEN use only one-ary operators and currying!

edited 30th Apr '11 3:14:06 PM by Tzetze

[1] This facsimile operated in part by synAC.

So real men are Haskell programmers?

Da Rules excuse all the inaccuracy in the world. Listen to them, not me.

......

......

............

[1] This facsimile operated in part by synAC.

Real men have access to competent languages that can accomplish basic readable tasks without painstakingly subverting an entire type system.

Being able to program in Haskell is the coding equivalent of a party trick, like spinning a plate on your finger.

edited 30th Apr '11 3:21:52 PM by Pykrete

I gotta admit, I was taught that it would be 1. Let me outline the working. Using, the slash instead of division-sign.

6/2(1+2)
6/2(3)
6/6
1

Whatever, though. At GCSE level in Britain, you're taught "BODMAS" - Brackets (of?) Division Multiplication Addition Subtraction. Of course, when it comes to the last two, the order doesn't matter.

However, I would be willing to accept nine as the answer.

All the above is irrelevant when you read the division sign as an addition sign. -_-

edited 30th Apr '11 3:24:47 PM by mailedbypostman

Nonsense. If we don't have to deal with the real world, we don't have to worry about mapping sequences of symbols to sememes - and so, this stupid question doesn't arise, and I don't get angrier at the universe than I already was. Except that the universe doesn't exist, so I can't get angry at it anyway.

[1] This facsimile operated in part by synAC.

I believe it would be 1 because coefficients have implicit grouping.

I'm convinced that our modern day analogues to ancient scholars are comedians. -0dd1