What makes non-PEMDAS answers invalid?
It seems to me that even the non-PEMDAS answer to an equation is logical since it fits together either way. If someone could show a non-PEMDAS answer being mathematically invalid then I’d appreciate it.
My teachers never really explained why, they just told us “This is how you do it” and never elaborated.
In: 834
PEMDAs exists for notation purposes only. It helps to clarify order of operations when reading a formula that somebody else has written down without knowing any context to the formula.
In reality, order of operations in math is really dependent of the context for the problem you’re trying to solve. Logic will dictate the order in which you ask questions and therefore, solve pieces of the formula. When presenting equations, scientists will include the logic sequence in their papers and show the individual components of the formula before presenting the entire thing.
For example. Assume you’re holding a party. You want to know how much to budget for chairs. Each chair costs $3 to rent for the day and each chair suitable for 2 people (they’re loveseats). You have 3 families of 4, 4 families of 3, and 30 singles attending.
How many chairs will you need? 4+4+4+3+3+3+3+3+1+1…., or (3X4)+(4X3)+(30X1) = 54.
How many chairs will you need? 54/2 = 27
How much money should you budget? 27X$3 = $81
If I were to write the whole thing out, then it would be ((3X4)+(4X3)+(30X1))/2*$3, and PEMDAs would help you to know the order of operations without knowing my logic sequence so you would get $81 instead of 9 or 117 or something.
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