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 :)
It's not that their words have magic power. It's that it's just an arbitrary notational convention in the first place.
Using parentheses doesn't "negate" or "match" anything. (a * b) + c and a * (b + c) are two different expressions specifically because of the use of parentheses, regardless of the relative order of the * and + without parentheses.
You're right, I had that epiphany and and updated my comment. Thanks for helping me educate myself.
No it isn't. It's the way we write factorised terms (and The Distributive Law is the reverse process to factorising).
Stop spamming me with uneducated nonsense
Maths textbooks are "uneducated nonsense". Uh, whatever.
How many math textbooks have you read?
Here's a more relevant question - how many Maths textbooks do you own? If it's more than zero, then take a picture/screenshot of any pages which you think support your argument. I'll wait.
A couple dozen
Still waiting.
Do something with your life.
I teach Maths. How about you?
I did for about 8 years until I quit academia during the pandemic. I would feel bad for your students if you weren't lying.
I see. So university, where they don't teach order of operations. Got it.
My students are doing just fine thanks
If you're not lying, then you've just doxxed yourself, as this is the single review for a high school math tutor on a UK tutoring website. Said tutor's credentials also do them no favors. Please delete the comment and this conversation is over.
How do you figure that? She had literally never passed Maths before, and with my tutoring she did. BTW order of operations was in the test.
Ok then, bye now.