Totally Pointless, but I need a Mathmatician

[DorkVader]

@Thudlow_Boink

Previous thread. Plus I’m sure we’ve had similar threads about similar “facebook math controversies.”

Huh, missed that thread, aaand I don’t do facebook either. I can’t remember at the moment why my wife brought this particular instance to my attention.

@Rigamarole

Well, it’s not like it’s a one-off thing you learn once and then move on. It’s a very fundamental part of basic arithmetic, and literally all math anyone will ever do in school past the 2nd or 3rd grade relies on knowing the correct order of operations. You simply cannot do any sort of math properly without knowing it.

The fact that anyone would be passing something so basic around FB as a “tricky” sort of problem is incredibly alarming. If those same people were also able to pass middle school (and God forbid anything beyond that), then our educational system has really–spectacularly and miserably–failed.

Like I said, it was pretty far back, the last time I took a math class. I never really had a problem with math, it was easy enough, I was just too stupidly lazy to do more than just enough to sqeek by for high school graduation requirements. And really I don’t really use more than basic math and estimation for quick and dirty stuff and usually have instruments and whatnot for the more precise stuff these days.

[Senegoid]

This is why we should all do our arithmetic in Reverse Polish notation.

[LSLGuy]

facebook: 6-1*0+2/2=?
RPN: 6,2,2/+1,0*-     [using "," for "enter"]
APL: +/6,(2/2),-1*0   [vector style]
APL: 6+(2/2)-1/0      [scalar style]

[LSLGuy]

Ignore previous post. I edited it into stupidity then ran out of time. Try this instead:

facebook: 6-1*0+2/2=?
RPN: 6,2,2/+1,0*-     [using "," for "enter"]
APL: +/6,(-(1x0)),2/2 [vector style, obvious code, "x" for multiply operator]
APL: +/6,(2/2),-1x0   [vector style, least characters, "x" for multiply operator]
APL: 6+(2/2)-1x0      [scalar style, "x" for multiply operator]