I wrote a (very long) blog post about those viral math problems and am looking for feedback, especially from people who are not convinced that the problem is ambiguous.
It’s about a 30min read so thank you in advance if you really take the time to read it, but I think it’s worth it if you joined such discussions in the past, but I’m probably biased because I wrote it :)
Division comes before Multiplication, doesn’t it? I know BODMAS.
This actually explains alot. Murica is Pemdas but Canadian used Bodmas so multiply is first in America.
As far as I understand it, they’re given equal weight in the order of operations, it’s just whichever you hit first left to right.
Yeah 100% was not taught that. Follow the pemdas or fail the test. Division is after Multiply in pemdas.
I put the equation into excel and get 9 which only makes sense in bodmas.
It doesn’t make sense in BODMAS either. Expanding Brackets has precedence of… Brackets, not “multiplication” - “Multiplication” refers literally to multiplication signs, of which there are none in this question.
The y(n+1) is same as yn + y if you removed the “6÷” part. It’s implied multiplication.
No, it’s the same as (yn+y). You can’t remove brackets unless there is only 1 term left inside.
…The Distributive Law.
Well I’m not seeing the difference here. Yn+y= yn+y = y(n+1) = y × (n +1) I think we agree with that.
Ok, that’s a start. In your simple example they are all equal, but they aren’t all the same.
yn+y - 2 terms
y(n+1) - 1 term
y×(n +1) - 2 terms
To see the difference, now precede it with a division, like in the original question…
1÷yn+y=(1/yn)+y
1÷y(n+1)=1/(yn+y)
1÷y×(n +1)=(n +1)/y
Note that in the last one, compared to the second one, the (n+1) is now in the numerator instead of in the denominator. Welcome to why having the (2+2) in the numerator gives the wrong answer.