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 isn’t required.
What is required is that everyone agrees to the same order of operation.
Everyone needs to be on the same page in which order a term is processed.
If everyone agrees that we process the terms according to PEMDAS that works. If everyone agrees that we simply go left to right, that works too.
What doesn’t work is if some people want to read a term one way and some other people want to read it another way. That doesn’t work.
It is like finding a word written down and arguing whether reading it as a French word with French pronunciation and meaning or as an English word with English pronunciation and meaning is more correct.
One way of reading a word is not more correct than another, what is important is that everyone agrees on a single way to interpret the word in the context it is in otherwise it has no meaning at all.
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