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48÷2(9+3) = ?


Waldo Frey

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I came up with 288. But there is a reason I don't do math :P

48/2(9+3)

24x12=288

So do I fail? :P

Parenthesis, Exponentiation, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction.

So yeah, you fail :)

ETA

Parenthesis/Brackets mean the same thing everywhere in Mathematics, BFC.

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I'm with Lany. I vaguely remember from Algebra 1 that anything in the ()s was meant to be multiplied with the bits on the outside. So I also did the bit outside them -- 48/2=24 -- give me 24(9+3). Then I added in the brackets to get 12 and found myself looking at 24(12) which I multiplied to come up with 288.

But I also am not a math whiz. I got As through Algebra 1, stumbled through the loopy world of Geometry with Bs, and then ran into a wall in my Algebra 2/Trig course which I barely squeaked through. Everything after that was only passed with lots of help from tutors and forgotten as quickly as possible.

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Parenthesis, Exponentiation, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction.

So yeah, you fail :)

ETA

Parenthesis/Brackets mean the same thing everywhere in Mathematics, BFC.

i just did a quick google search and every site i found said 288 is the correct answer, can you direct me somewhere that states otherwise. cos now i'm confused, and i don't like being confused on a friday, it spoils the weekend.

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Are you sure the problem is laid out exactly as Waldo has written it? Changing it around, including adding different parentheses, would make a huge difference to the solution. Kungtotte has already listed PEMDAS, what it means, and how to apply it to the problem as written by Waldo.

(48/2)(9+3) is 24*12 is 288, I presume.

48/2(9+3) can also be explicitly written as 48/(2(9+3)) without changing the answer, and is 2.

Don't rely on Google calculate, either - it assumes you mean (48/2) even though that's not what's written, which changes the answer to 288.

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Parenthesis, Exponentiation, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction.

So yeah, you fail :)

You need to brush up a little on the order of operations. It's actually:

1. Parentheses (and other grouping symbols)

2. Exponents (and roots)

3. Multiplication and Division (from left to right)

4. Addition and Subtraction (from left to right)

In this problem, the division occurs before the multiplication (because it is to the left).

(Curses to high school math teachers everywhere who teach the acronym PEMDAS.)

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