6÷2(1+2)=?
This one almost caused knock-down drag-out fights with some of my friends, believe it or not...and they were math majors and engineers who could not agree...and each was convinced there was no way they could be wrong. Apparently there is a large debate in the mathematical world over this one...with brilliant people on both sides...what do you think?
Linda
BEDMAS??
ReplyDeleteI am not a math major so please correct me if I'm wrong.
Brackets 6÷2(3)=?
Division 3(3)=?
Multiplication 9
The answer is 9.
Just realized I posted to the wrong area.
And I commented on your post in the wrong area hah
ReplyDeleteInteresting! At first I thought to myself, what's the problem? The answer is 9! I couldn't see another way to look at it until I forced myself to figure out what other answer someone could be getting (which is actually a very teacher-like thing to do! anticipate possible wrong answers!)
6÷2(3)= 6÷6 = 1
However, BEDMAS is pretty clear cut. If someone were arguing that the answer is 1 then they are not following the rules of BEDMAS since they would have done the multiplication before the division. BEDMAS says that when it comes to the multiplication and division (and addition/subtraction) you are to do whichever one comes first when reading it left to right. If you are following those rules then the answer is 9. I actually typed this into an online calculator exactly as is and the solution came up as 9.
Life could have been made simpler had it just been written (6÷2)(1+2) though hah.