Quote:
Originally Posted by winders
Did you read the part of my post that says "There is a convention that says you do implicit multiplication before division. Based on that convention, you get:"???
Scott
|
another thing you don't understand
'There is a convention that says you do implicit multiplication before division'
is a rule only in your world, it is not a convention recognized anywhere else except in the minds of others that don't understand math.
the overarching rule is left to right
exponents
then multiplication(doesn't matter whether implicit or explicit) or division
then addition or subtraction
unless modified by some other consideration, there are many, but parenthesis is the common one here
by your thinking
1/2(3) is somehow different from 1/2*3
both expressions have 1 division and 1 multiplication and they must be performed left to right, even you got that right,
1/2(x) is exactly the same as 1/2x or 1/2*x
they all have 1 division and 1 multiplication that are performed left to right
when I taught Calculus I insisted that my students convert any expression into rational form so as to clearly understand what was involved, this conversion isn't necessary it merely helps to clarify
in rational form the above expressions are
and
it further helps to remember that every operand, lets call it x has 1 for a coefficient, 1 for a divisor and 1 for a denominator unless specified differently
