At least calculator provides answers.
Remember not to upvote people who post SMBC comics without posting the votey.
179288872.22473
This checks. I estimated it to under 1/5 billion.
To the OP, some periods or commas would have been nice.
To the 4ists, Yeah. Well, ya know, that’s just, like, your opinion man.
Yeah I know, I had copied it from a calculator but thought it had copied the commas
I mean, that sounds like the reasoning behind the order of operations, to me. At least that’s the only reason I’ve ever been given.
The order of operations is made from consensus. Just like we all agree the first letter of the alphabet is “A”. You could make the order of operations whatever you like, you would just need to rewrite equations to reflect that change.
The order of operations is made from consensus.
No it isn’t. It’s a natural consequence of the definitions in the first place. e.g. 2x3 is shorthand for 2+2+2, so if you don’t do multiplication before addition then you get the wrong answer, hence the order of operations rules.
Your argument is circular in nature. The right answer is dependent upon the order that you do the operations. So you can’t use the argument that the order of operation matters. Because if you do the math not using the correct order of operations, the answer comes out incorrectly.
For example, we could just do away with order of operations all together and explicitly use parentheses everywhere. While the system would be extremely painful to use, it would result in a consistent mathematics.
So there’s nothing inherently correct about our current order of operations. I will say that I like it and that it makes sense to me.
If you want a fun Wikipedia trip look up reverse polish notation (RPN). If I have to do away with the current order of operations, I might look to this as a possible alternative.
The order of operations is a convention created by humans so as to ensure a consistent understanding of mathematical expressions. The reason for them being the way they are is merely because that’s what we’ve agreed upon.
I wish I could have been in the room. You know someone was like, “Eh, just left to right. We’ll use parentheses to specify an order when it’s necessary.” Then someone else said, “What if we use this system of various rules instead.” If I were there, I would have killed that person to save mankind.
All order of operation rules are made up, but some of them are more useful than others. Rules that jive with associative and communtative laws are preferred.
Or come over to RPN and stop worrying about it.
All order of operation rules are made up
None of them are made-up. They are all a natural consequence of the way things have been defined. e.g. 2x3 is shorthand for 2+2+2, so if you don’t do multiplication before addition then you get the wrong answer, hence the order of operations rules.
They’d then go to war
