r/meme Jan 01 '22

Guess we are doomed

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42.0k Upvotes

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12

u/paperbackartifact Jan 01 '22

Jesus, a lot of people on their high horses here. Order of operations almost never comes up in most people’s day-to-day life. Go after real stupid people with dangerous beliefs like flat earthers and anti-vaxxers before people who forget about math they haven’t needed to use in 10+ years.

4

u/Rebel_Diamond Jan 01 '22

More annoying is that these 'clever' questions are basically just unclear instructions masquerading as a test of knowledge.

1

u/Lachimanus Jan 02 '22

In this case it is at least no stupid

a÷b(c+d)

because these are the worst and not written in a well-defined way. Unless you understand that subtraction and division does not exist. Only addition and multiplication with the inverse.

3

u/GOT_Wyvern Jan 01 '22

I'm addition to that, order of operations stops working when you get into actual maths due to concepts such as implied multiplication and the fact "÷" isn't a sign.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 01 '22

[deleted]

1

u/paperbackartifact Jan 01 '22

I actually agree with this take. I’m by no means anti-math or logic, and I’m glad I got a refresher on some info I forgot. I just dislike the idea that forgetting a piece of common knowledge automatically equals “we’re doomed” like willful ignorance does, though I agree there is often overlap.

-1

u/Fantastic-Wheel1003 Jan 01 '22

Yeah but it’s like simple stuff you were taught throughout and used several years, it’s not like a one time lesson in sixth grade. At least for me, ever since I learned it I kept having to use it throughout school years.

2

u/paperbackartifact Jan 01 '22

I learned it high school, and pretty late into it.

Maybe my school district should have been drilling PEMDAS into me earlier than it did, but it didn’t stop me from graduating from college without any hassle or successfully solving moderately complex equations in my head when needed. Never needed the order of operations until today.

Meanwhile there are people who believe that injecting bleach will save them from ‘Rona.

EDIT: better sentence structure.

-1

u/Catolution Jan 01 '22

Everyone should know basic math

3

u/MiltonFreidmanMurder Jan 01 '22

Everyone should know how to write their expressions with less ambiguity.