Originally Posted by ThA ShErMaNaToR
As an engineering student that's has done years of calculus, differential equations, and Laplace transforms...
Y'all deserve a smash in the face with a highschool arithmetic book if you aint saying 2
Parenthesis, multiplication, then division. A calculator is simply numerical single step calculation, aka it doesn't do the real math, you do
Stupidest thing I've read so far. So humans and calculators operate on two different sets of mathematical rules and principles? I agree, a calculator can't come up with an equation or expression on its own from, say, a word problem. But if I try adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing on a calculator I expect to get the same thing I would get if I did it by hand. You're saying it'd be OK if a calculator said 2+3 = 30,000,000,000, because calculators can't do math? What's the point of calculators, then?...
And referencing your knowledge of more advanced math topics doesn't mean anything. Virtually anyone can go to their community college and study linear algebra, vector calculus, metamathematics, "insert other fancy math topic", etc. without understanding more basic math. I'm sure not knowing that the answer to this question is 288 didn't ever present a problem for you in your studies of engineering. Plus, plenty of other accomplished mathematicians are saying it's 288, so your credentials aren't unique. As a matter of fact, there's more math/engineering/stats majors in this thread saying 288 than there are saying 2.
And by the way, you said "parenthesis, multiplication, division". Well, once you get to 48/2(12), the 12 inside the parenthesis is as simplified as it can be. The expression can be rewritten as 48/2*12, which contains no parenthesis, if that makes it any easier for you. Please show me somewhere/someone that says multiplication comes before division. At this point, I can't but seriously doubt your knowledge of math, as you don't seem to understand that multiplication and division are inverse processes (dividing something by something else is equivalent to multiplying something by the reciprocal of the other number/variable. In other words, XY = X(1/Y)).
I could easily rewrite the problem as 48 / 2 / (1/12). What would you do now? There's no multiplication anymore. Surely, you must agree you would just go left to right. If you disagree, let me know why...it's most likely an amusing explanation.
Saying one comes before the other would be like saying addition comes before subtraction, or vice versa; ultimately, it doesn't matter, since addition and subtraction are commutative (as is multiplication, for that matter), but the principle is still fundamentally flawed.
In case you didn't read anything, simplify this:
48 / 2 / (1/12)...which, in case you didn't notice, is equivalent to the original problem, 48/2(12). I just rewrote the 12.
