PEMDAS is technically correct, but morally wrong

Comments

• FiskFisk33@startrek.website ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  we can if we want, its called Polish notation
  en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_notation

  instead of x + y we write + x y
  then 2 + 3 * (3 + 7) + 6 becomes + 2 + * 3 + 3 7 6

  good luck parsing it.

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• db2@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Some of you have never read a Choose Your Own Adventure book and it shows.

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• droning_in_my_ears@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Morally wrong? What does morality have to do with any of this?

  This is a matter of conventions. Which way we do it doesn’t actually matter that much as long as we all agree on a way. Maybe you think PEMDAS is counterintuitive, maybe others disagree. That doesn’t make it morally wrong.

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• gratux@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Reverse Polish Notation works almost like you describe. You put the operands first, then the operation. For example:

  • 3 + 4 --> 3 4 +
  • 3 • (5 + 2) --> 5 2 + 3 •

  Probably the reason why we are not using it is because most tools today use algebraic notation, and it would be a lot of effort to switch

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  • lemmyng@lemmy.ca ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I loved my HP48GX calculator with RPN.

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    • Raffster@kbin.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Still have mine and use my 32sII regularly

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  • Shurimal@kbin.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Best system for calculators IMO. Especially if you need to add many numbers together (eg doing price calculations)—just enter all the numbers to the register, double-check for errors, then add together. Way less error prone than traditional calculators.

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  • Olmai@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    It’s just less readable for humans, great for programs though

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  • pdxfed@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I have no doubt that your link goes to urban dictionary.

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• Haus@kbin.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  PEMA is technically correct. Division and subtraction are illusions.

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  • SmartmanApps@programming.dev ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Actually multiplication and division are shorthand notations for addition and subtraction - e.g. 2x3=2+2+2 - so everything boils down to addition and subtraction.

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• MeanEYE@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Is it just me or people actually writing and using math daily never complain about this stuff? Only “it’s been a while I forgot the rules” crowd.

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  • Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    But it said that 98% of people will get this wrong! I have to prove to my Facebook friends that I’m smarter than them and the rules of math keep ruining it for me!!!

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  • AndOfTheSevenSeas@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    This has largely been my experience

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• cali_ash@lemmy.wtf ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Why can’t we just write equations in the order they were meant to be solved?

  I mean, you can. No one is stopping you.

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• pruwybn@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  My guess is that in real world applications, it makes more sense to think about things in terms of multiplying values together and then adding the total. Like if you have a list of products, with prices and quantities for each, to get the total value you multiply each quantity by its price and then add them all together.

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• tiredofsametab@kbin.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  read it from left to right like a language

  A number of languages are not left-to-right, BTW.

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• olorin99@kbin.earth ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Yes having equations written in a more straightforward way might make it easier for laypeople to understand but I think that the people who use their head for anything more complicated than a+b and don't just use a calculator can probably figure it out fine.

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  • olorin99@kbin.earth ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Also don't understand the "morally wrong" argument. Just because something is slightly more complicated than it could be doesn't make it "morally wrong".

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• limitedduck@awful.systems ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Not all equations have a solution right away. PEMDAS, or BEDMAS as I was taught, helps you navigate these novel equations. It’s a natural way to think when exploring problems outside of a textbook.

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  • Witchfire@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Bedmas > Xmas

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    • limitedduck@awful.systems ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      My Xmas starts and ends with a good old bedmas

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• livus@kbin.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Could you give an example of how you think it should be written? I'm having trouble envisaging it.

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  • FiskFisk33@startrek.website ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_notation :)

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    • livus@kbin.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      @FiskFisk33 thank you!!

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  • Bob_Robertson_IX@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I’m guessing it’s CCM=e

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  • APassenger@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    PE(MD)(AS)?

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• ElectroVagrant@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  A more fun variation on this would be to contest mathematical notation. PEMDAS is one thing, but mathematical notation? Not only might you get lost in the order of operations, now you’re lucky if you can even read it without committing yourself to the maths cubicles.

  Yeah, they don’t get dungeons, they get cubicles because it’s a geometrically appropriate hell.

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• SmartmanApps@programming.dev ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  You can if you wrote everything as just addition and subtraction, but then we made some shorthand notations for that, such as 2x3=2+2+2, and so now you have to do multiplication before addition otherwise you get a wrong answer, and if you wrote all multiplications before all additions there’d still be no problem, but as someone else pointed are, there are cases where it’s easier to have a different order, and so voila! Order of operations rules.

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• MrJameGumb@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Maybe just stick to using a calculator?

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• Haus@kbin.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  PEMA is technically correct. Division and subtraction are illusions.

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