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I genuinely think PEDMAS/BODMAS nonsense creates permanent barriers to understanding in math in some people because it inculcates an understanding of the symbol
by jameshart 7y ago
I genuinely think PEDMAS/BODMAS nonsense creates permanent barriers to understanding in math in some people because it inculcates an understanding of the symbols like + and - as being sequential operations, and they struggle to ever make the leap from math as ‘calculation’ to math as ‘reasoning’ as a result.
- mojomark 7y agoConcur. A long time ago I spent a full day as a professional engineer trying to figure out why a microsoft Excel formula wasn't working. Turns out that the default MS Excel order of operations was not PEMDAS, it's PE(M or D)(A or S), where 'X or X' is selected based on which operator comes next from left to right.(1) So frustrating. Always use parens. 1. https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/excel2013/complex-formulas/1/ https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/excel2013/complex-formulas/1/
- apricot 7y agoIsn't that the normal way to do things? Every teacher, every textbook has always told me that multiplication and division have the same priority, as do addition and subtraction.
- Dylan16807 7y agoWait, so what do you think 1+2-4+8 is supposed to be? It's not negative.