Poll: What is the answer to 48/2(9+3)?

[Foxbat Flyer]

Seems everyone has one of theese, I learnt this one in year 6, BOMDAS Brackets or multiplication (If there is brackets) devision then addition and subtraction. so by my method, it becomes
48/2(9+3)
48/2(12)
24(12)
24*12
288

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I don't know why I'm doing your math homework for you, but let's see. Man it's been awhile since I've had to do that kind of math, but if I remember my order of operations correctly, that should work out to 48/(18+6) which works out to 48/24 which is 2.

 

[Lilani]

So, as Professor Layton wisely pointed out, the problem is poorly written.

Why does that phrase sound so fitting...?

I have no idea, but it's the greatest thing I've had the opportunity to type in months

 

[KiraTaureLor]

2... still remember from grade school, Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally; Parentheses, Exponent, Multiply, Divide, Addition, Subtract. So... 9+3=12, 12*2=24, 48/24=2.

this may be off-topic, but I never got how the whole "my aunt", and tricks like thing helped people memorize stuff like this? It boggles my mind.

 

[DefunctTheory]

I just thought of something.

Did anyone else learn High School Algebra from Saxon text books?

If I remember correctly, Saxon NEVER used / to denote division. In fact, during lessons, they never used it at all.


HOWEVER, in the back of the book, they had the answers to the odd questions of the homework. Due to space constraints, they couldn't put in the full fractions.

So they used / instead.

So maybe this is just residual short hand from a lazy text book?

 

[Jason Danger Keyes]

I was taught BEDMAS, PEMDAS must be foreign

 

[Trivun]

I don't know why you want us to do your homework for you, but I got 288... after you do the parentheses, you're supposed to do them from left to right. I think it's a poorly written problem, though.

Ummmm, I'm sorry, what? Left-to-right is completely wrong. The correct way is BODMAS (as taught in UK schools, the acronym is different elsewhere apparently, but the method is always the same).

B - Brackets
O - Order
D - Division
M - Multiplication
A - Addition
S - Subtraction

The M/D and A/S bits can be swapped to get BOMDAS, BOMDSA, BODMSA and BODMAS, all ways still give the same result. So here, we apply it. The initial problem is 48/2(9+3). The '/' means division here. So we do the brackets first, as set out in the ordered form. This gives us 48/2(12).

2(12) means exactly the same as '2 x 12', which gives 24. We do this step next because of the 'multiplication' part, which comes next in the BODMAS order. So we now have our solution as being 48/24, or rather, 48 divided by 24. Which is easy to figure out. The answer is 2.

And although I mean no offence to anyone who got the wrong answer, and don't wish to appear smug or condescending, I do have to say that anyone who gets this wrong is an idiot. It's something that gets taught in primary school, or elementary school if you're not in the UK, or equivalent. It is the first thing anybody is taught about maths after they learn the basic numbers. And anyone who tries to argue against me on this is also a complete idiot. Bear in mind that I study Maths at university, and if I gave the answer to this problem as 288 in a lecture, then pretty much half of my lecturers would have a heart attack, and all of them would fail me for their courses without even considering my coursework and exams. It's one of the easiest problems you can possibly face in Maths, the only people I would accept getting this wrong are those who are actually illiterate. Otherwise, there is absolutely no excuse.

 

[Vrach]

Calculator says 288.

Hail to the robot overlord.

This is all Joker's fault...

 

[XzarTheMad]

It's nothing more than simple PEMDAS

48/2*(9+3)

You do what's in the parentheses first

48/2*12

No.

You multiply into the paranthesis, as such:
2*(9+3) = (2*9)+(2*3) = 18+6 = 24

Then you do whatever multiplication or division comes first. In this case it was 48/2

24*12

Dude, wat? You'd do that if the question was (42/2)*(9+3). You can't divide by a single number in the denominator and leave out the rest. Everything "above" the division and everything "below" the division.


I hope this is not an indication of American math. Honestly, I suck at math, and this just seems like elementary school stuff to me. Whatever PEMDAS is, this is a clear and easy matter of calculating it using your brain, not a standard formula.

48/2(9+3) = 48/(2*9)+(2*3) = 48/18+6 = 48/24 = 2

Anything else is incorrect.

Please stop trolling the answer is 288

follow PEMDAS



saying you suck at math then saying its real easy and still shwoing the wrong answer just shows your ignorance and stupidity.

Your Denmark math is obviously superior then.

How is my answer wrong? Please tell me. Rather than trolling I actually showed where the problem was, and how it should be calculated instead. Actually, it's rather ironic that you accuse me of trolling, and then attack my country.

Whatever PEMDAS is, it's obvious that you are doing it wrong. Consulting an american friend, I was told that even with PEMDAS the answer is 2. I've explained why in my previous post (not the one quoted), please read that. And, if you have anything more to say, please let it be educated.

48/2(9+3) = 48/2(12) = 24(12) = 288

You do what is in the parentheses first always then any exponents then checking from left to right any multiplying and division not in parentheses and finally any addition and subtraction not in parentheses to come up with your answer.

I assume you never went beyond elementary school math. It's clear that there's no explicit symbol between the 2 and the paranthesis. Thus you treat them as a single entity. True, you solve the paranthesis first, but multiplying into it: 2(9+3) = (2*9)+(2*3) = 18+6 = 24. This is the entire point of the excercise. Trying to point to lacking paranthesis works both ways, so you can't defend the problem as being poorly written. It's true that you could simply do (9+3) = (12), but you'd still have to multiply it by 2, because of the rule of treating them as a single entity.

I wish I'd had some math in English so I could explain this better. I probably don't use the right terminology. I am right, however.

 

[jp201]

I don't know why you want us to do your homework for you, but I got 288... after you do the parentheses, you're supposed to do them from left to right. I think it's a poorly written problem, though.

lol it's not a homework problem man, I'm not in middle school. This question is blowing up other forums and reddit.

48/2(12) = 2 using PEMDAS

that is not correct. the 2 is not in the parentheses and therefore is only treated as multiplication in PEMDAS.

The M = multiplication and D = Division is done in order from left to right. regardless which one shows first. since division is first we do that.

48/2=24 24(12)= 288

 

[EGtodd09]

It's a trick question guys, there is no right answer in it's current format. If the question is just 48/2(9+3) in it's linear fashion it is indeed 288. But if it's
42
______
2(9+3)
(I can't think of a better way to type that) which is what it looks like as it's written with a line instead of a division sign its 2 but really, written as it is, neither option is correct.

 

[Onoto]

Well, assuming I couldn't ask someone to write the &%$#ing problem correctly, I would assume that since the knucklehead used brackets on the (9+3) he would have used brackets around 48/2 if he intended it to equal 24.

 

[jp201]

It's nothing more than simple PEMDAS

48/2*(9+3)

You do what's in the parentheses first

48/2*12

No.

You multiply into the paranthesis, as such:
2*(9+3) = (2*9)+(2*3) = 18+6 = 24

Then you do whatever multiplication or division comes first. In this case it was 48/2

24*12

Dude, wat? You'd do that if the question was (42/2)*(9+3). You can't divide by a single number in the denominator and leave out the rest. Everything "above" the division and everything "below" the division.


I hope this is not an indication of American math. Honestly, I suck at math, and this just seems like elementary school stuff to me. Whatever PEMDAS is, this is a clear and easy matter of calculating it using your brain, not a standard formula.

48/2(9+3) = 48/(2*9)+(2*3) = 48/18+6 = 48/24 = 2

Anything else is incorrect.

Please stop trolling the answer is 288

follow PEMDAS



saying you suck at math then saying its real easy and still shwoing the wrong answer just shows your ignorance and stupidity.

Your Denmark math is obviously superior then.

How is my answer wrong? Please tell me. Rather than trolling I actually showed where the problem was, and how it should be calculated instead. Actually, it's rather ironic that you accuse me of trolling, and then attack my country.

Whatever PEMDAS is, it's obvious that you are doing it wrong. Consulting an american friend, I was told that even with PEMDAS the answer is 2. I've explained why in my previous post (not the one quoted), please read that. And, if you have anything more to say, please let it be educated.

48/2(9+3) = 48/2(12) = 24(12) = 288

You do what is in the parentheses first always then any exponents then checking from left to right any multiplying and division not in parentheses and finally any addition and subtraction not in parentheses to come up with your answer.

I assume you never went beyond elementary school math. It's clear that there's no explicit symbol between the 2 and the paranthesis. Thus you treat them as a single entity. True, you solve the paranthesis first, but multiplying into it: 2(9+3) = (2*9)+(2*3) = 18+6 = 24. This is the entire point of the excercise. Trying to point to lacking paranthesis works both ways, so you can't defend the problem as being poorly written. It's true that you could simply do (9+3) = (12), but you'd still have to multiply it by 2, because of the rule of treating them as a single entity.

I wish I'd had some math in English so I could explain this better. I probably don't use the right terminology. I am right, however.

How did you get that the 2 in multiplied into both the 9 and the 3?

that is not even close to how anyone else approached this problem. You say you suck at math and your defending your answer really hard for someone who admits their weakness in this subject

 

[pln9fos]

You could get either answer, depending on how you write it. In the form that it's written in now, I got 2, but if it was on a piece of paper with 48/2, then (9+3) next to that entire function, you'd get 288.

 

[Trivun]

Seems everyone has one of theese, I learnt this one in year 6, BOMDAS Brackets or multiplication (If there is brackets) devision then addition and subtraction. so by my method, it becomes
48/2(9+3)
48/2(12)
24(12)
24*12
288

Sorry, but that's wrong. As I pointed out to someone else in my previous post. Your mistake is that you've forgotten that the (12) is still on the bottom of the fraction, and thus your third line should still read 24/12, not 24(12). Which gives the answer as 2. To put it in a better way, imagine that in each of these next lines, there's a fraction line seperating the numbers on the top and bottom. So 48/2(12) becomes:

48
2(12)

This then gives:

48
24

Giving an answer of 2. Otherwise, write that second fraction as:

48
2(12)

Becomes:

24
(12)

Which again gives the answer as 2. I hope that makes a bit more sense now

 

[McNoobin]

To put it simply, when written like that you never assume it's a fraction unless told otherwise. Soooo 288.

 

[mew4ever23]

Remember the thread way back a few years ago where people were discussing the nerdiest thing they had ever debated about? My answer is now this thread.

i got 2

9+3*2=24
48/24

google changes the formula to look like this (48 / 2) * (9 + 3) = 288

I don't see the point you're trying to make. Google's saying you're wrong (which you are), and you're trying to show it as evidence that you're right?

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

How is this problem blowing up other forums? It's simple order of operations or BEDMAS, as the mnemonic I was taught goes:

1. Brackets
2. Exponents
3. Division and Multiplication (Left to right, neither has priority)
4. Addition and Subraction (Left to right, neither has priority)

The answer, in steps:

48/2(9+3)
48/2*12
24*12
=288

(* = Multiplication)

Mmmhmm. BEDMAS remains ingrained in my skull as well.

[sub]*shudder* I had hoped I was done with math.[/sub]

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I was taught BEDMAS, PEMDAS must be foreign

That's what I'm thinking too.

[sub]The Escapist keeps nomming my posts.[/sub]