this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2023
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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by wischi to c/[email protected]
 

https://zeta.one/viral-math/

I wrote a (very long) blog post about those viral math problems and am looking for feedback, especially from people who are not convinced that the problem is ambiguous.

It's about a 30min read so thank you in advance if you really take the time to read it, but I think it's worth it if you joined such discussions in the past, but I'm probably biased because I wrote it :)

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

My TI-84 Plus is my holy oracle, I will go with whatever it says.

And then get distracted and play some Doom.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It will give 9, just like my 89 emulator. It treats division like a fraction. For a TI, the entire denominator of a fraction needs to be in parentheses or you get into trouble.

[–] SmartmanApps 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

It treats division like a fraction

Which is why it gives the wrong answer.

Also you shouldn't be adding a dot between the 2 and the brackets - that also changes the answer.

[–] wischi 4 points 1 year ago
[–] SmartmanApps 1 points 9 months ago

TI calcs give the wrong answer, and it's in their manual why - they only follow the Primary School rule ("inside the brackets"), not the High School rule which supersedes it (The Distributive Law).