Maths Disagreement

[TulaOfDarkWater]

One person thinks the answer is 165 and the other thinks 67, who is right?

YABU - 165
YANBU - 67

Or what’s the answer if both are wrong?

It is worth noting that the OP’s answer of 67, well explained by @NeedToBeBrave1, is mathematically valid. Her method is identical to that of @stuckasastuckthing. The difference is that OP and @NeedToBeBrave1 have assumed that each clock has value 3, each banana bunch 4 and each shape 15.

For correct maths I voted YANBU, the rest is a matter of interpretation.

@Warblerinwinter you don’t need brackets when something is being multiplied. Try it on a calculator without brackets using BODMAS. The answer is 38.

I learnt at school to start at the left and work through, unless there were brackets. So
2+3 =5 + 3 =8 ×11 = 88.

I don't know how a new method was invented that came up with a different answer. Surley maths is maths and can't ever change, numbers do the same thing forever.

This is a fascinating thread - if only because it is not about men behaving very badly! But, that aside, it is clear that there is nothing at all pure about maths and that the answer to this problem somewhat depends on when you were at school. The answer 165 would, without any doubt, have been marked as correct (honest guv - I did really well at Maths O-level back in the dark ages!)

The answer is not 165, it’s 38 as each side of the shape counts as 1. Each banana is 1 and the value of the clock is the time. Zoom in on the picture. If you are confused about addition and multiplication check it on a calculator.

@Whichcatthatcat

I learnt at school to start at the left and work through, unless there were brackets. So 2+3 =5 + 3 =8 ×11 = 88.

I don't know how a new method was invented that came up with a different answer. Surley maths is maths and can't ever change, numbers do the same thing forever.

This just isnt true. Go look at old textbooks. You're taught BODMAS.

Someone on here actually explained about teacher strikes and things getting in the way of maths being taught properly for a certain generation but outside of that, you would not have been taught differently. Maths has not changed.

@Mischance

This is a fascinating thread - if only because it is not about men behaving very badly! But, that aside, it is clear that there is nothing at all pure about maths and that the answer to this problem somewhat depends on when you were at school. The answer 165 would, without any doubt, have been marked as correct (honest guv - I did really well at Maths O-level back in the dark ages!)

No, it wouldn't have been.

@UniversalAunt

Yes to BIDMAS as well as BODMAS, as the I refers to indices.

However there is some discourse about BIDMAS/BODMAS/PEDMAS, as this pithy article explains.

Time to ditch BODMASS

Yes I guess BOPS simplifies things.

I’m pretty sure I never learnt BODMAS but always knew the order of operations.

[quote user03848921]@Warblerinwinter you don’t need brackets when something is being multiplied. Try it on a calculator without brackets using BODMAS. The answer is 38.[/quote]
Ha ha! I have a maths degree. I know you can put into a calculator…you can put any numbers into a calculator and it will just give you an answer, doesn’t mean it makes sense. Maths is a beautiful and precise language…that calculation isn’t. It’s ambiguous

Multiplication always happens before addition.

That has never changed.

We aren’t talking about higher order, possibly theoretical situations where the assumptions define the rules of the equations. We are talking about basic calculations. You could just as easily have a stack of stones in front of you that you are moving around.

3+3+(4x11)=50

Sorry. 2+3+3x11
38

2+3+(3x10)

35

@Warblerinwinter

No brackets- therefore no single correct answer. Who on earth wrote it like that with no brackets Dumb really

Nobody - and I mean nobody - who thinks this is true has a maths degree.

I’ve seen some blatant Pinocchios on Mumsnet over the year but this one takes the biscuit.

@Warblerinwinter you have a maths degree but you are saying this doesn’t make sense without brackets ? 🤔

x+x+2*x You wouldn’t know to multiply first without brackets?

I got 88! The merry are fewer bananas in each bunch on the last equation. The clock says 2 not 3 and there are 11 sides to all the shapes. So isn't it 2+3+3=8. Then times 11 = 88?

Or

2+3+(3x11)

@KhaleesiOfChaos

Just scroll up and read the step by step outline.
The answer is 38.

That link you posted has a calculation they've done totally wrong @Mostlyjustrunning.

1 -2 + 4

Contrary to what they've put, if you do addition then subtraction you get 1 + 4 - 2 = 3. They haven't kept the '-' with the 2.

@dementedpixie

That link you posted has a calculation they've done totally wrong *@Mostlyjustrunning*.

1 -2 + 4

Contrary to what they've put, if you do addition then subtraction you get 1 + 4 - 2 = 3. They haven't kept the '-' with the 2.

It wasn’t me that posted it, but at first I thought they had it wrong but I think they are explaining that people might think it has to be Addition THEN subtraction due to BODMAS therefore Products then Sums is better.

They've got confused about negative numbers.

-2 + 4 = +2
They think it equals -6.

Instead of actually adding 4 and going up the number line, they've "added 4" and made it more negative. Think they got confused and didnt know how to add onto a negative. Thought it made it more negative!

It's 38.

Each group of polygons in the first line is 15. A square, a pentagon and a hexagon is 15 sides in total. In the last pic the polygons care missing the square so the pentagon and hexagon makes it 11.

Bananas are 1 each.

Clock is worth 3 but it's set to 3 o'clock, in the final pic it's set to 2.

Final line reads as 2 + 3 + 3 x 11.

Multiplication proceeds addition so 2 + 3 + 33 = 38

[quote user03848921]@Warblerinwinter you have a maths degree but you are saying this doesn’t make sense without brackets ? 🤔

x+x+2*x You wouldn’t know to multiply first without brackets?[/quote]
Bodmas doesn’t work…it can be applied to only the examples where bodmas does work ( e.g. 1-2+4 bodmas style is very very wrong)
And you’re quite right…I certainly wouldn’t know to multiply first…without brackets could be interpreted either way
These types of equations are lazy and a modern phenomenon….It’s like writing without punctuation
I never heard of bodmas and their various off shoots through my entire education in maths from late 60s to early 80s. Never needed to. People wrote equations out full hand. It takes nano seconds to put brackets in while you’re thinking through problems, same as punctuation. Although my punctuation isn’t always perfect🙄
I look at your equation and my brain goes into melt down same as it would with a sentence without punctuation.
Each to her own…but good luck trying to use bodmas with a child to explain 1-2+4

Either 38 or 88.
Last row is 2 +3+3×11. ( shape is different and has 11 sides, clock says 2,, there are 3 bananas).
If you use bodmas is 5 + 33 = 38
If you solve left to right is 8x11=88.

@Mostlyjustrunning You would use the sign of 2 (-2) when you added to 4 which gives 2. Then you get three. But if you don’t remember that always use operations left to right. BODMAS hasn’t failed really.