Seriously, every time this comes up and everyone makes a huge deal out of it, I keep thinking, “none of the people writing these better be teachers.” You have to be more clear than this.
Edit: ok, not so much this one. I just read the words and assumed the math problem was one of the ambiguous ones. Stand down, soldiers.
I’m great, thanks for asking. I had just woken up and I haven’t been sleeping much lately. It’s very possible that what I percieved as a perfectly normal way to state that I was taken aback that you could say that about this math problem, came across to you instead as an assault. Please know that wasn’t my intention, and I regret the way I phrased that. Thank you for your concern.
Just fucking read the content before you comment next time, okay pal? 😂
Well and truly noted. I was unaware until I got called out on it, so the whole experience has made me wonder how often I do that sort of thing without realizing it.
Pretty hypocritical on my part, since I’m usually on team hey-actually-read-it-before-you-comment.
You’re right. I honestly just assumed it was one of those intentionally engagement-baiting posts when I saw it and didn’t even process the problem itself.
Yea that is true but a lot of these questions use the division sign when they should just use a fraction and everything would have been easy to understand. If i see the devision sign and there are more than 2 elements like x=a÷b+5 i cry because if they just used x=a/(b+5) or x=a/b +5 it is just visible no ambiguity.
(a/b as in a over b, idk how to do fractions on the phone if you know tell me!)
Believe what you like. Including that all mathematics communication and education is flawless and incapable of any ambiguity, apparently.
But for your own growth as a person, I recommend you chew on this: the people who write these “questions” to put on Facebook are exploiting the exact same mindset that made you decide that insulting my intelligence was the best way to have this conversation, and using it to get a massive amount of rage-baity engagement. They’re not teachers trying to educate. They’re scammers trying to build up a following so that they can execute a scam.
Actual math educators, on the other hand, are moving away from using the “PEMDAS” (or “BEDMAS”) acronyms because of the ambiguity inherent in them, and using “GEMS” (or “GEMA”) instead. Partially because, if even smart people who know PEMDAS can get confused, the acronym must not be all that useful.
Anyway. You’re trying to make me mad, and for a minute it worked. But I’m over it. Again–have a good one.
I think it’s reasonable if you consider the kind of physical situation it might represent.
You visit a farm and there are 2 unpackaged apples. There are also 5 packages that hold 8 apples but 5 have been removed from each. How many apples are there?
it’sa badlywrittenmathproblemSeriously, every time this comes up and everyone makes a huge deal out of it, I keep thinking, “none of the people writing these better be teachers.” You have to be more clear than this.
Edit: ok, not so much this one. I just read the words and assumed the math problem was one of the ambiguous ones. Stand down, soldiers.
no
it’s
fucking
not
This is just basic algebra, this is actually how the problems in algebra I are written. What the fuck?
Whoa, you went from 0 to 100 on rage super quick. You ok buddy?
I’m great, thanks for asking. I had just woken up and I haven’t been sleeping much lately. It’s very possible that what I percieved as a perfectly normal way to state that I was taken aback that you could say that about this math problem, came across to you instead as an assault. Please know that wasn’t my intention, and I regret the way I phrased that. Thank you for your concern.
Just fucking read the content before you comment next time, okay pal? 😂
Well and truly noted. I was unaware until I got called out on it, so the whole experience has made me wonder how often I do that sort of thing without realizing it.
Pretty hypocritical on my part, since I’m usually on team hey-actually-read-it-before-you-comment.
Not this one, there is no ambiguity here. Order of operations are all good.
You’re right. I honestly just assumed it was one of those intentionally engagement-baiting posts when I saw it and didn’t even process the problem itself.
Yea that is true but a lot of these questions use the division sign when they should just use a fraction and everything would have been easy to understand. If i see the devision sign and there are more than 2 elements like x=a÷b+5 i cry because if they just used x=a/(b+5) or x=a/b +5 it is just visible no ambiguity. (a/b as in a over b, idk how to do fractions on the phone if you know tell me!)
There’s nothing wrong with using a Division sign, and anyone who thinks there is has forgotten the rules of Maths.
There’s NEVER any ambiguity. It’s what the rules of Maths are for!
No, that’s a divided by b. (a/b) is a over b.
No need to, just use Brackets for Fractions.
how should it have been written?
Nope, you’re right. I just read the words and assumed it was one of the terrible ones.
This one is just…math.
They ALL are
They’re definitely not
Says person who definitely can’t give a single example of any that aren’t 🙄
I don’t take homework from insufferably smug jerks on the Internet. Have a good one.
Nor Maths teachers apparently, which would explain a lot. Hilarious that you say goodbye when you can’t back up what you said with a single example
Believe what you like. Including that all mathematics communication and education is flawless and incapable of any ambiguity, apparently.
But for your own growth as a person, I recommend you chew on this: the people who write these “questions” to put on Facebook are exploiting the exact same mindset that made you decide that insulting my intelligence was the best way to have this conversation, and using it to get a massive amount of rage-baity engagement. They’re not teachers trying to educate. They’re scammers trying to build up a following so that they can execute a scam.
Actual math educators, on the other hand, are moving away from using the “PEMDAS” (or “BEDMAS”) acronyms because of the ambiguity inherent in them, and using “GEMS” (or “GEMA”) instead. Partially because, if even smart people who know PEMDAS can get confused, the acronym must not be all that useful.
Anyway. You’re trying to make me mad, and for a minute it worked. But I’m over it. Again–have a good one.
I think it’s reasonable if you consider the kind of physical situation it might represent.
You visit a farm and there are 2 unpackaged apples. There are also 5 packages that hold 8 apples but 5 have been removed from each. How many apples are there?
In fairness, this one isn’t nearly as bad as most of the ambiguous problems that get passed around on Facebook with multiple parentheticals and such.
Your word problem is excellent.
There aren’t any ambiguous ones, and anyone who thinks they’re ambiguous has forgotten the rules of Maths.
No it isn’t.
I am, and it’s written correctly
It’s already 100% clear to everyone who remembers the rules of Maths
NONE of them are ambiguous
Just patently untrue, but I’m no longer interested in this.
Maths textbooks are patently untrue?? 😂 I guess you think Earth is flat too