Steve_PPP

iTrader: (3)

Bodmas rubbish, you're stil wrong

joz8968

iTrader: (13)

If that was a question in maths at school, the mathematical notation indicates that the answer is 2.

Anything associated with brackets needs to be treated separately from anything else i.e. "(9+3)" first, followed by 'its associated' "x 2". Then that finally gets divided into the "48".

Ergo, when x(y+z) is written, you do what's inside the brackets first, followed by the adjacent value outside the brackets. That's the very reason for expressing it like that (instead of 48 ÷ 2 x (9+3))

The notation tells you which parts to treat as an entity - despite the primary school left to right order.

LEO-RS

Can't believe this is still going strong

The answer is clearly 288, just like everything in maths from pythagoras to transposition to calculus, you have to follow the basic rules, BODMAS hasn't been made up for the sake of it, division is done before any multiplication, hence why D is in front of the M (Massive clue there)

2 is not inside the brackets, it has nothing to do with it. It's therefore 48\2x12. (24x12) 288


If you are getting 2 as an answer, you should really rename BODMAS to BOMDAS 59% of scoobynet clearly fluffed their basic GCSE's

Google knows the score..http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=&q...GB368&ie=UTF-8

288, 288, 288, 288, 288

Bubba po

Actually, division and multiplication are of equal rank, you do them in order left to right.

joz8968

iTrader: (13)

And yeah, there's NO hierarchy as regard x and ÷ and + and -. It's all in the notation.

dpb

What about if you read right to left

joz8968

iTrader: (13)

lol

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

I like this answer Still, its nice to have a quick refresher to remind me about BODMAS. Its been a while since I did my A-Level...altough by todays standards that is probably masters degree level

Bubba po

That's exactly what I implied about three pages ago. The sum is intentionally written out ambiguously.

It ought to be in two sets of brackets. it's ambiguous as to where the multiplying 2 belongs in the problem. It's made more ambiguous by pressing the 2 up close to the bracket - it's implying it has a closer relationship to the sum within the bracket than it does with the numbers outside it, which is wrong.

If the bracket had a power attached to it, I would agree that it pertained to the bracket, but a mere multiplier is ambiguous and regardless of how close it's placed to the sum in parenthesis, it is ACTUALLY part of the preceding sum.

CREWJ

Can't believe people still think it's 288. Do you even have a GCSE in maths?

SJ_Skyline

S-Level thank you

CREWJ

I see

SJ_Skyline

Maybe... Maybe not... Time will tell

Steve_PPP

iTrader: (3)

A* @ GCSE, A @ A'Level, and plenty of pure maths in my degree too

The answer's still 2

edit/ boomer's post (#68 in thread) is spot on.

Lisawrx

iTrader: (1)

Going by this thread, it's 2 or 288, depending upon how you read the silly numbers and brackets.

If there is this much arguement over the question as it was written, then I am potentially right either way, so I'll happily hedge my bets and answer either/or.

BTW, I hate maths but fwiw, I came up with 288.

joz8968

iTrader: (13)

Thing is it would never be shown like that as a maths question, anyway.

It would either be:

48
-------
2(9+3)

or

48
-- x (9+3)
2


1st gives 2; 2nd one gives 288.

The ÷ sign isn't normally used in pure mathematical notation, so therefore no ambiguity as which 'order' to worry about.


But if using the ÷ sign, then the only way of writng it, so no confusion, would be:-

(48÷2)(9+3) = 288

or

48÷(2(9+3)) = 2

Lisawrx

iTrader: (1)

**** me..some people take this maths stuff awfully seriously.

ChefDude

If there's no priority in division and multiplication, isn't it simply 48 / 2 * 12. Left to right it works as 24*12?

I personally think the Math is written poorly - if you want priority, you have to use brackets.

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

I think until we get to the root of the equation, divisions between sub-sets within the forum will simply increase exponentially

Some of the arguments being put forth are rational but many irrational and the odd one is completely imaginary

I think we should integrate the ideas before we fail to differentiate between these positions.

(maths geek humour FTW!)

Leslie

The division sign separates the two sides such that the bracketed item has to be calculated before the division is done. The only way to change that is as above where two sets of brackets are used.

Les

Miniman

iTrader: (2)

I think the notation is ambiguious. However I never liked maths at school, but was assured on many occasions that these things stem out of real life situations.

I'd probably start at the original situation and then I'd know whether the person is asking for 48 divided by 24 or 24 multiplied by 12.

joz8968

iTrader: (13)

This makes a lot of sense, as by the divide ÷ sign's very meaning, the top dot denotes all the stuff that would be to the left hand side of the dash i.e. the top numerator. And the bottom dot denotes the stuff on the right hand side of the dash i.e. the bottom denominator.