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[-] billwashere@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago

So order of operations is hard?

[-] HereIAm@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

The issue normally with these "trick" questions is the ambiguous nature of that division sign (not so much a problem here) or people not knowing to just go left to right when all operators are of the same priority. A common mistake is to think division is prioritised above multiplication, when it actually has the same priority. Someone should have included some parenthesis in PEDMAS aka. PE(DM)(AS) 😄

[-] AnotherPenguin@programming.dev 1 points 1 year ago

Another common issue is thinking "parentheses go first" and then beginning by solving the operation beside them (mostly multiplication). The point being that what's inside the parentheses goes first, not what's beside them.

[-] SmartmanApps@programming.dev 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Another common issue is thinking “parentheses go first”

There's no "think" - it's an absolute rule.

then beginning by solving the operation beside them

a(b) isn't an operation - it's a Product. a(b)=(axb) per The Distributive Law.

(mostly multiplication)

NOT Multiplication, a Product/Term.

The point being that what’s inside the parentheses goes first, not what’s beside them

Nope, it's the WHOLE Bracketed Term. a/bxc=ac/b, but a/b( c )=a/(bxc). Inside is only a "rule" in Elementary School, when there isn't ANYTHING next to them (students aren't taught this until High School, in Algebra), and it's not even really a rule then, it's just that there isn't anything ELSE involved in the Brackets step than what is inside (since they're never given anything on the outside).

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this post was submitted on 31 May 2025
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