• If you agree that parenthesis go first then the equation becomes 8/2x4

    No, it becomes 8/(2x4). You can’t remove brackets unless there’s only 1 term left inside. Removing them prematurely flips the 4 from being in the denominator to being in the numerator, hence the wrong answer.

    • Aermis@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      No it doesn’t? You treat parenthesis as it’s own variable or equation. X/Y*Z. X is 8. Y is 2. And z is 2+2, or 4. Why did you add brackets to the 2? They were never there from the first equation. You can’t just multiply Y to Z and ignore X.

      • You treat parenthesis as it’s own variable or equation

        Exactly! 2(2+2) is a Term subject to The Distributive Law

        X/Y*Z.

        But it isn’t. It’s X/YZ.

        Why did you add brackets to the 2?

        I put back the brackets that you had prematurely removed when you wrote 8/2x4. You can’t remove brackets unless there is only 1 term left inside. 2(4)=(2x4)=(8)=8. When you removed the brackets prematurely you flipped the 4 from being in the denominator to being in the numerator, hence the wrong answer.

        They were never there from the first equation

        Yes they were. The original equation is 8/2(2+2).

        • Aermis@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Considering how conflicting and confident we are that we are both correct, clearly there’s an issue with order of operations and how brackets work. Otherwise this wouldn’t be such a debating issue. We were taught that 2(2) is the same as 2x2.

          • Otherwise this wouldn’t be such a debating issue

            It’s not in debate in any Maths textbooks, which is something none of the people claiming ambiguity ever reference.

            We were taught that 2(2) is the same as 2x2

            It’s the same as (2x2), which is 1 term, not 2x2, which is 2 terms, which is why you can’t prematurely remove the brackets. See worked example in this textbook…

            • Aermis@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              OK, so in that picture you sent, the bottom part of it where it says you multiply the brackets by the number preceding it. Take that and put it to the right of the devision equation.

              If you just put those numbers into brackets you’ll also have to put 8/2 in brackets as well. Then it’s (8/2)x(2+2). The answer is 16. Your way the answer is 1. Which is wrong.

              • Then it’s (8/2)x(2+2). The answer is 16

                Yes, the answer to that is 16, which isn’t the same as 8/2(2+2) (since you added a multiply to it and changed the expression).

                you’ll also have to put 8/2 in brackets as well

                No, 8/2 is two terms. I see you didn’t read the link about Terms then. If you put 8/2 into brackets, then you just changed the expression, and thus also the answer. According to your logic - add more brackets to the left - 4+8/2(2+2)=(4+8/2)(2+2)=32