Math question

[NFLDERS]

This question was posted on a site stating the answer would be surprising, but I didn't read further to get the answer. The question was as shown, my initial answer was 1, but my final is 4?

 

[CAPSLOCK]

4

 

[amcnj]

I also think 4, since multiplication and division have the same level of precedence, and there are no parentheses, I would just proceed from left to right, step by step.

 

[Mommb]

Assuming x means multiplication, the most reasonable answer is 4, for the reasons amcnj gave above. The standard convention when no grouping symbols are used is to perform multiplication and division in order from left to right.

If there were a situation attached to the expression such as “2 groups of 3 cookies are shared equally among 3 groups of 2 people. How many cookies does each person get?”, the answer could be 1.

 

[_19disnA]

4

 

[GAN]

It’s 4

 

[disykat]

Yep. I've always thought PEMDAS should be written PE/MD/AS to avoid confusion. When I've taught it (not often since I was mostly primary grades) I've written it out that way while introducing it along with left/right arrows over MD and AS.

 

[neverlandsky]

Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally.
Order of operations: Parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction.

I got 1 since multiplication comes before division in the problem.

 

[SirDuff]

Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally.
Order of operations: Parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction.

I got 1 since multiplication comes before division in the problem.

Weird. Not how I was taught (or kids are currently taught here):

1) We called it BEDMAS (so the word division comes before multiplication)
2) As a PP noted above, DM are equal (and AS are equal)

ETA: Everything that I can find says that, with PEMDAS, it is still the fact that division and multiplication are equal (as are addition and subtraction):

https://blog.prepscholar.com/pemdas-meaning-rule
https://byjus.com/maths/pemdas/
https://www.mathsisfun.com/operation-order-pemdas.html

 

[TCRAIG]

Yeah - 2x3=6 6divided by 3=2 and then 2x2=4…but they really should have used parentheses…but since they didn’t - you just go in order left to right.

 

[Dan Murphy]

4