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Comment on A fake Facebook event disguised as a math problem has been one of its top posts for 6 months

barsoap@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

It’s ambiguous which one of these is correct. Hence the best method we have for “correct” is left to right.

The solution accepted anywhere but in the US school system is “Bloody use parenthesis, then”, as well as “Why is there more than one division in this formula why didn’t you re-arrange everything to be less confusing” up to “50 Hertz, in base units, are 50s^-1^”.

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SmartmanApps@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

The solution accepted anywhere but in the US school system range from “Bloody use parenthesis, then” over “Why is there more than one division in this formula why didn’t you re-arrange everything to be less confusing” to “50 Hertz, in base units, are 50s-1”.

No, the solution is learn the rules of Maths. You can find them in Maths textbooks.

so no actual mathematician, or other people using maths in earnest, use that kind of notation.

Yes we do, and it’s what we teach students to do.

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HereIAm@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I fully agree that if it comes down to “left to right” the problem really needs to be rewritten to be more clear. But I’ve just shown why that “rule” is a common part of these meme problems because it is so weird and quite esoteric.

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