Quote:
Originally Posted by island911
Yeah, Dari is a goof that really goes for the person, or whatever he thinks will spin people up. (thus his clown-shoes)
So, back to my main point..(which has never been 2 or 288) if anyone thinks that the OP eqn wasn't intended to be ambiguous, please raise your hand.
I mean, really "48 ÷ 2(9+3) = ????" ...who the hell uses ÷ AND the implied (distributive) multiplication, but someone looking to be ambiguous? ...no brackets, and the selective use of one old operator symbol ÷ which happen to print very closely to the common + symbol (our keyboards even have that character. -no key for the ÷ -btw, a little history on that.(used for subtraction)
Anyway, if you raise your hand, please read Mathematical Notation: Past and Future -it's very readable. (more math history.)
oh, and Ambiguity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
It was intended to test the mathematical understanding of the readers, it has amply done that by exposing the confused understanding on the part of all too many
It may not be common or best practice to mix notations but these sorts of devices are commonly used on standardized tests to separate the wheat from the chaff. which it has certainly done here. No matter what varying notation is used the expression should be able to be evaluated correctly