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Borg
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Wow. I've always been careful with using parenthesis on calculators but that is odd.OCR said:Who'da thunk it... ? [COLOR=#black]..[/COLOR] [COLOR=#black]..[/COLOR]
Wow. I've always been careful with using parenthesis on calculators but that is odd.OCR said:Who'da thunk it... ? [COLOR=#black]..[/COLOR] [COLOR=#black]..[/COLOR]
I wouldn't have assumed it but it isn't surprising for a device with a certain amount of brain. I would always have put in the parentheses. The first proper calculator I used was an HP and Reverse Polish is still my automatic approach to calculations on a calculator with anything ambiguous about them. You can't go wrong with RPN (haha). It's good to know that the Scientific Calculator could store the whole expression before evaluating it. I wonder how long the expression would have to be to beat it.OCR said:Who'da thunk it... ? [COLOR=#black]..[/COLOR] [COLOR=#black]..[/COLOR]
Borg said:Wow. I've always been careful with using parenthesis on calculators but that is odd.
Not really "bizarre". It's just following the rules for the shorthand way of writing down a calculation. It's 'grammar' for Maths.PeroK said:But, for people using the scientific calculator the dark cloud of PEMDAS hangs over them, so the operations are carried out in a bizarre order.
sophiecentaur said:Not really "bizarre". It's just following the rules for the shorthand way of writing down a calculation. It's 'grammar' for Maths.
I never trust myself with a long chain of key entries with no visual feedback, in any case. I like to write the expression down so I can see what I have done and then leave it to the processor to work it out. I was in a pub the other day and the barmaid got three different answers on three attempts on a hand calculator. I sympathised.
And units. Which is a pet peeve of mine: not using units.PeroK said:And, in fact, homework posters on this forum often leave out brackets. What do the homework helpers do?
Greg Bernhardt said:Could be a common wrong definition or an ineffient way to solve a certain equation. I don't know, what in science and math bugs you? Educators should fill this thread! :D
DrClaude said:And units. Which is a pet peeve of mine: not using units.
I prefer trees. It's my favorite response to an answer like: "5" - "5? 5 trees, or what?"ZapperZ said:
Meanwhile I think, this must be actually a disease, like dyslexia or dyscalculia. Maybe, it's a hope of mine.DrClaude said:And units. Which is a pet peeve of mine: not using units.
So, ##\log_2 32 = 5 \text{ trees ?}##fresh_42 said:I prefer trees. It's my favorite response to an answer like: "5" - "5? 5 trees, or what?"
Ahh, that's where you are wrong my boy.PeroK said:I have no idea what PEMDAS really says and I've never found the need.
Well almost. But at least in terms of quality.Mark44 said:So, ##\log_2 32 = 5 \text{ trees ?}##
sophiecentaur said:3p+2q makes sense to you, dunnit?
micromass said:Let's write ##3x^2 + 5x + 7 = 0## without PEDMAS:
[tex] (((3\cdot x)\cdot x) + (5\cdot x)) + 7 = 9 [/tex]
Don't know about you, but I prefer to have this whole PEDMA convention...
PeroK said:Not really. Yes, I know what you mean, but it's not the way I or any maths text would write it. It would be:
##3p + 2q##
The spaces are important and indicate that I have two terms added together. I wouldn't go so far as to say that 3p+2q is wrong, but it's not something I would ever write.
In general, I would tend to agree with the ISO standard on mathematical symbols:
http://www.ise.ncsu.edu/jwilson/files/mathsigns.pdf
This, I believe, is closer to what most professional mathematicians naurally would adhere to. There is no mention of PEMDAS or order of operations there.
PeroK said:I refer you also to the ISO standard, which makes the quadratic expression quite clear without the need for PEMDAS.
There is no more need to ignore spaces in a line of mathematics than a line of text.
micromass said:I personally don't know any professional mathematician who has even heard of the ISO standard, sorry.
micromass said:Seriously, I have read many books on sound mathematical writing. None of them says to use "spaces" instead of PEMDA's. That most professional mathematicians prefer "spaces" is just wrong.
PeroK said:I never said they had. I said that if you look at maths publications they naturally follow the standard. A case of the standard describing how things are done, rather than the standard coming first.
PeroK said:Then why did you put spaces in your quadratic expression?
micromass said:I didn't. LaTeX did it.
PeroK said:I wonder why?
PeroK said:I wonder why?
micromass said:Name me one professional mathematician or article that thinks 2p+3q is invalid.
PeroK said:As I said, I wouldn't say it's actually wrong, but I've never seen a textbook that doesn't have spaces between terms. Perhaps there are some, but it's always the way LATEX renders it on here. All the books I have would have:
##ax^2 + bx + c##
I've never seen ax^2+bx+c.
micromass said:You clearly never read older textbooks that didn't use LaTeX then.
Sure, nowadays LaTeX using spacing accurately because it increases readability. There is no actual formal rule that acknowledges spacing though...
micromass said:Well, in my newest math paper, I'm going to write something like
[tex]2~\cdot ~x\! + \! y[/tex]
to mean ##2(x+y)##. I'm pretty sure the reviewer will look at it and say "hey, he used spaces, so of course it's correct".
PeroK said:I never said there was. I said that some of us naturally use spacing the way we use it when writing - to separate terms.
If what I would like to be rules was the rules it wouldn't be my pet peeve would it? It's only my pet peeve because I know there's PEMDAS out there and I know we're all supposed to have memorised the whole damn thing and we're all supposed to think that:
(a) 6+3-1/3+1*0-4^3+1x2
Makes perfect sense. And the question of whether this mess equals 951 or 67 is of some mathematical consequence. And that there is no rule (which I think there should be) that says that (a) is a mess and not maths at all. I know that some people think that evaluating (a) is the pinnacle of arithmetic achievement. And, if I made the rules, then yes I would declare (a) to be mathematical nonsense. The fact that it is not deemed nonsense is my peeve.
And if we view the above in the context of programming languages (such as C, C++, C#, Java, etc.), we should do this:micromass said:Let's write ##3x^2 + 5x + 7 = 0## without PEDMAS:
[tex] (((3\cdot x)\cdot x) + (5\cdot x)) + 7 = 9 [/tex]
Don't know about you, but I prefer to have this whole PEDMA convention...