5 + 5 + 5 - 5 + 5 + 5 - 5 + 5 * 0

[theseoafs]

Bear with me: I ran into this poll on Facebook and was sad to see that the vast majority of voters had gotten it completely wrong.  I know this is an utterly stupid topic to post, but apparently the rules of arithmetic are not clear to most people.

You're smarter than Facebook, right, DTF?

EDIT:  Obviously, if you're going to participate in the poll, try not to look at the thread's replies, eh?

[Adami]

I'm going with 15.

[Implode]

15

Luckily this is less ambiguous than that other problem from a couple months ago.

EDIT: Okay. I can forgive the 20, but who answered 0?

[Ben_Jamin]

Dammit, I meant to pick 15 instead of 20.

[theseoafs]

15

Luckily this is less ambiguous than that other problem from a couple months ago.

 

Yeah, this problem doesn't have anything to do with that one.  That one was vaguely written, but people are getting this one wrong because they're bad at math.

[FlyingBIZKIT]

I'm going with 15.

[Dark Castle]

15

[lonestar]

YES!! I fucking got one right!!!!

[jcmistat]

15!!!!

[theseoafs]

YES!! I fucking got one right!!!!

LONESTAR IS THE BEST PERSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LONESTAR IS THE BEST PERSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Implode]

Now 3 people chose 0?

 

 

[Phoenix87x]

PEMDAS baby.

Now do a problem on Spherical Coordinates, Taylor series or the normalization of quantum wave functions and then we can talk.

[BlobVanDam]

I'm just going to admit that I can't remember the order of operations at all so don't know what it should be.

Although in practical use, you'd have enough context to have written it out properly and include parentheses, so it's pretty trivial.

ps. I would have guessed 0, which is obviously the wrong order.

[chrisbDTM]

PEMDAS mofuggahh



i went with 15

[Implode]

Although in practical use, you'd have enough context to have written it out properly and include parentheses, so it's pretty trivial.

Good point. Although it disappoints me that people don't know PEMDAS, these make people look dumber than they actually are for the most part.

[jammindude]

Obviously I'm out of sequence.    I chose zero.   Anything times zero is zero, right?   But I guess if you do it in a different order than left to right.   

I don't remember my sequences anymore.

[Implode]

Yup. You multiply the last 5 by 0 first. Then add/(subtract) the rest.

[theseoafs]

I'm just going to admit that I can't remember the order of operations at all so don't know what it should be.

Although in practical use, you'd have enough context to have written it out properly and include parentheses, so it's pretty trivial.

ps. I would have guessed 0, which is obviously the wrong order.

And @everybody who answered 0 I guess

PEMDAS

1.  Solve everything in parentheses first according to order of operations
2.  Solve exponents
3.  Solve multiplication and division, going left to right
4.  Solve addition and subtraction, going left to right

Being that there are no parentheses or exponents, we go right to step 3.  So the first thing we do is multiply 5 by 0, and replace the two numbers with 0.  Then we have

5 + 5 + 5 - 5 + 5 + 5 - 5 + 0

And from there you just add and subtract, left to right.  The answer is 15.

EDIT:  As for including the proper context/grouping in practical use... well, honestly, I don't see any way you would see this equation in practical use.  It's such a trivial statement that there's really no way you'd ever see it in any academic context.

But since addition and multiplication are associative, we can basically insert parentheses however we want (as long as we make sure the 5*0 is grouped together).  So here's a legal grouping that has no bearing on the validity of the answer and is obviously 15:

5 + 5 + (5-5) + 5 + (5-5) + (5*0) = 15

[Dark Castle]

PEMDAS mofuggahh



i went with 15

[Adami]

I'm changing my answer from 15 to 72.


Why? Because I can.


I mean....I can't vote for it since it's not an option.....but I can declare it the right answer.

[Jaffa]

Dammit, I meant to pick 15 instead of 20.

[LieLowTheWantedMan]

Luckily this is less ambiguous than that other problem from a couple months ago.

Worst thread ever. I seriously wanted to take quite a bit of the thread back to Grade 4 math.

[Syzzle]

I didn't pay attention in school at all, but I mean come on all they ever taught in middle school was that PEMDAS crap.

[lonestar]

PEMDAS baby.

Now do a problem on Spherical Coordinates, Taylor series or the normalization of quantum wave functions and then we can talk.

Aw c'mon, way to pee in my fucking Cheerios, I finally get one of these stupid things right and you gotta throw this shit out. I'm heading to the cooking thread where I can feel smart again. Peace!!!

[Implode]

Luckily this is less ambiguous than that other problem from a couple months ago.

Worst thread ever. I seriously wanted to take quite a bit of the thread back to Grade 4 math.

Shhhh. You'll start something!

[LieLowTheWantedMan]

Oh and in Canada it's BEDMAS. PEMDAS sounds silly.

[BlobVanDam]

Although in practical use, you'd have enough context to have written it out properly and include parentheses, so it's pretty trivial.

Good point. Although it disappoints me that people don't know PEMDAS, these make people look dumber than they actually are for the most part.

While people should know these things (or at the very least be aware that there is a defined order so they can look it up before just answering it confidently and making a fool of themselves), in practicality I haven't needed to know it since school, when questions were intentionally written this way to test it, so I've just forgotten the order.

And the funny thing is, I write longer math equations all the time with 3D programming, and the order of operations isn't even an issue thanks to brackets. It's much clearer to read and calculate in your head, and it's just a generally good practice. If you wrote anything out the OP equation, you're just asking for trouble.
I can't think of a time when PEMDAS has been necessary in a real life situation for me, because if you understand the purpose of the equation you're writing/calculating, you understand the correct order intuitively, instead of just being an equation without context.

PEMDAS baby.

Now do a problem on Spherical Coordinates, Taylor series or the normalization of quantum wave functions and then we can talk.

Aw c'mon, way to pee in my fucking Cheerios, I finally get one of these stupid things right and you gotta throw this shit out. I'm heading to the cooking thread where I can feel smart again. Peace!!!

Well you've got a better memory than me bud, and you've been out of school a bit longer than I have. So there's something for ya.

[Implode]

Agreed.

Oh and in Canada it's BEDMAS. PEMDAS sounds silly.

And I think they both sound silly.

[SeRoX]

It's definitely 15.

[chrisbDTM]

welp, good thing no one went with 40

[LieLowTheWantedMan]

welp, good thing no one went with 40

Yeah. You'd have to be insanely dyslexic and change everything to + for that.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

I suck...............for not paying attention! I read it: 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 * 0

[Implode]

Don't feel bad. This is learning experience for many.

[Phoenix87x]

PEMDAS baby.

Now do a problem on Spherical Coordinates, Taylor series or the normalization of quantum wave functions and then we can talk.

Aw c'mon, way to pee in my fucking Cheerios, I finally get one of these stupid things right and you gotta throw this shit out. I'm heading to the cooking thread where I can feel smart again. Peace!!!

Don't feel too bad Lonestar, I can barely even boil water, let alone create a delicious meal.

and If I had your skills with the ladies, then I wouldn't have to know any of this nerdy crap.

[wkiml]

you kids and your new fangled math