EPTA Simple Math Problem? - Page 12
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TemplarCo.
Mexico2870 Posts
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Coolbeans
Ireland162 Posts
On April 08 2011 06:28 Raysalis wrote: lol nice trick question ^^. I am quite sure that most people that do engineering or maths at university will pick 2 since at uni when our profs writes 48/2(9+3), they usually means 48/ (2(9+3)) instead of (48/2) (9+3). If they want to imply (48/2) (9+3), they will usually write it as [48*(9+3)]/2. Somehow its such an ugly looking equation in my eyes, not sure if anyone else agrees :p This. | ||
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Rhuidan
Canada7 Posts
It's 288.. the problem is people automatically group the brackets with the 2.. | ||
MasterOfChaos
Germany2896 Posts
Poll: What is your education and what is you result? 288 - And I'm studying/have studied science/math/engineering at university level (1174) 2 - And I'm studying/have studied science/math/engineering at university level (795) 288 - And I'm not studying/have not studied science/math/engineering at university level (759) 2 - And I'm not studying/have not studied science/math/engineering at university level (548) 3276 total votes Your vote: What is your education and what is you result? (Vote): 2 - And I'm studying/have studied science/math/engineering at university level Chill, can you add my poll to the OP so it gets a better data basis? | ||
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HaNdFisH
Australia119 Posts
On April 08 2011 06:17 Golgotha wrote: you gotta be trolling. if not please have pity on the future generations of our youth and become a janitor.  You do not need an explicit multiplication symbol to clearly know when to multiply. The parentheses clearly points to multiplication. Good luck in becoming a math major. I have a math major already, the only people "wrong" here are those calling others out on being wrong. I guess part of this is the context in which it appears. Seeing it in a Grade 6 maths test I would assume it was a sneaky test of order of operations and say the answer is 288. Seeing it in a paper or assignment/test at university level I would probably say it is 2, but would seek clarification because 1) No one ever uses a division symbol past high school, possibly a mistake 2) It is ambiguous, I would probably try to see where it came from and check the derivation myself or ask the person that wrote it. | ||
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dapanman
United States316 Posts
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sluggo
United States74 Posts
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blomsterjohn
Norway475 Posts
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billyX333
United States1360 Posts
I think people are trying to put it into numerator/denominator form which is only good for chalkboard/notebook writing notation but never with calculators/computers if you work a lot with programs like mathematica, it really hurts your brain(mine at least) to think anybody could come up with 2 | ||
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Velr
Switzerland10966 Posts
with 2(9+3) i have no idea what to do :p | ||
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Mastermind
Canada7096 Posts
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n00b3rt
Bulgaria890 Posts
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cnaphan
Canada8 Posts
48÷(2(9+3)) or __48__ 2(9+3) rather than _48_ x (9 + 3) 2 For example, if I considered the equation: a ÷ bc and tried to write it in standard multiple line format, most would write: _a_ bc and not _ac_ b as the OP suggests is correct. | ||
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NathanSC
United States620 Posts
On April 08 2011 06:34 HaNdFisH wrote: I have a math major already, the only people "wrong" here are those calling others out on being wrong. I guess part of this is the context in which it appears. Seeing it in a Grade 6 maths test I would assume it was a sneaky test of order of operations and say the answer is 288. Seeing it in a paper or assignment/test at university level I would probably say it is 2, but would seek clarification because 1) No one ever uses a division symbol past high school, possibly a mistake 2) It is ambiguous, I would probably try to see where it came from and check the derivation myself or ask the person that wrote it. This is absolutely right. The majority of people who rush to call those who answer 2 bad at math have likely not taken higher level math classes. | ||
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Ecael
United States6703 Posts
On April 08 2011 06:36 blomsterjohn wrote: haha for some reason I ended up with "48 / (2/12)" , which somehow also became 288, no idea how that came about since that's not the actual problem... cool tho, guess I better get more of this from my grower :D 48/(2/12) = (48*12)/2 | ||
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Shiladie
Canada1631 Posts
as other people have linked: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=48/2(9+3) | ||
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kOre
Canada3642 Posts
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Mastermind
Canada7096 Posts
On April 08 2011 06:34 HaNdFisH wrote: I have a math major already, the only people "wrong" here are those calling others out on being wrong. I guess part of this is the context in which it appears. Seeing it in a Grade 6 maths test I would assume it was a sneaky test of order of operations and say the answer is 288. Seeing it in a paper or assignment/test at university level I would probably say it is 2, but would seek clarification because 1) No one ever uses a division symbol past high school, possibly a mistake 2) It is ambiguous, I would probably try to see where it came from and check the derivation myself or ask the person that wrote it. Actually, it is not ambiguous at all. Using order of operations can only lead to one answer, that being 288. | ||
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wilsonreis
Brazil97 Posts
It is not ambiguous in any way. It might be misleading, based on the fact that most people didn´t actually learn how to deal with those operation the proper(*) way. (*) proper as in "conventional" way. Yes, it is a convention. No, it isnt ambiguous ! | ||
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munchmunch
Canada789 Posts
Also, the "What is your education and what is you result?" poll really should have options for, "I didn't vote because I thought it was ambiguous". | ||
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