If I never have to argue about Order of Operations again, it’ll be too soon.
6/2(1+2) … is the answer 3 or 9?
My favorite response is from Brian Katz:
It’s all down to bad and ambiguous typeface, not a mathematical question, I think.
And my thoughts… we know the rules, right? Can we just work on improving our grammar and quit arguing about “order” in these ambiguous questions? These kinds of problems make poor use of the keyboard shortcuts of “/” when a regular fraction symbol or bar would do when writing this on a piece of paper.
Okay… rant complete. But seriously, next time you have a question like this, write the expression less ambiguously and then give it a go. No need to debate.
