40+40x0+1 ?

[minimuffy]

40 + 40 x 0 + 1 =

A- 1
B- 41
c- 0

I say its B-41 as you need to multiply then add. (from what i remember of standard grade maths the acroymym BOMDAS- brackets off, multiply, divide, add, subtract)

DH says its 1.

please tell he's wrong!

sorry grimma

Hooray! well done Pirate.

Stranded, do you really think introducing imaginary numbers is going to help some of this shower?

Or shall we see if 40 + 40/0 + 1 will make someones head explode?

As discussed already, many calculators are works of the devil incorrect.

Thanks for that grimma ;) I have never been able to deal with that concept.

incidentally out of curiosity I tried out the calculator on my android & is really very clever so I've learnt something too

Loony - don't worry, computers can't deal with it either. Many and varied crashes are caused by untrapped divide-by-zero errors. You might get away with a mysterious NaN (Not a Number) appearing.

I miss imaginary numbers. :(

I was thinking about them the other day as I was pondering the square root of -1.
I have no idea why I was pondering the sq root of -1, but i was on the toilet, so maybe that's where i have my genius moments!

the calculator on the computer does it correctly.

(the op's sum)

Well, I'm an accountant so I'll just ask -

"what do you want it to be?"

StrandedBear 0 is still a number. It's not something you put in to say "I don't know".

The beauty of maths is that, whichever (correct!) method you use, the same maths expression always leads to the same answer.

We can demonstrate that 40 ÷ 0 is infinity.

40 ÷ 8, say, can be done as repeated subtractions: start with 40 students, take away a team of 8 students, then take away another team of 8 students, etc, until there are no students left. You can subtract 8 five times, so you'll get 5 teams. So 40 ÷ 8 = 5.

Now do the same with 40 ÷ 0.

Start with 40 students. Take away zero students. Take away zero again. Take away zero again... No matter how often you subtract 0 from 40, you still have 40, ie you can repeat the subtraction infinitely many times. So 40 ÷ 0 = infinity.

at GettingALifeNow.
Vey good.

Ahaaaaahaaha- excellent, GettingALifeNow.

Stranded - nope. Its infinity. (hows your head? )

Infinity isn't a number! The answer to a calculation can't be infinity. A number divided by zero is undefined.

At grammar school in the 60s we learnt BMDAS (Bless My Dear Aunt Sally). Something I've never ever forgotten BUT can someone tell me the order of resolving brackets? Is it left to right or do you resolve division within brackets followed by multiplication in brackets etc. Or doesn't it matter?

Oooh, that IS mind-blowing Stranded, because if you pick the right answer you immediately change the outcome. It's cats in boxes all over again!

hocuspontas, in to out. Within the brackets you follow the same order, BODMAS.

it is infinity.

of course it's infinity.

it's not "undefined" because "undefined" is not a number.