My thought process: if I had 8÷(4+4) = 1 and factored out a 2, I get 8÷2(2+2) = 1. However, if I say 2(2+2) = 2*(2+2), then 8÷2(2+2) = 8÷2*(2+2) = 1, BUT 8÷2*(2+2) = 16.
Please help I’m feeling dumber by the second
In: Mathematics
It’s not, it’s 16.
First, I don’t think anyone debates that we should do the parentheses first, so we have 8÷2(4).
So let’s just make that last operation an explicit multiplication, 8÷2*4
So then you remember pemdas from elementary school. But then you remember later in elementary school that multiplication and division are the same operation, in the same way that addition and subtraction are the same. ie division by 2 is multiplication by 0.5 and subtracting 1 is adding -1.
For this reason, multiplication and division are performed as they come from left to right, neither taking priority over the other. If you had 8-2+4 you do the subtraction and then the addition and get 10, not 2.
So here we do the division to get 4 and then the multiplication to get 16.
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