Have you seen this question going round on Facebook?

6�2(1+2)=?

What do you think?

I recall the Order of Operation in an arithmetic equation was/is:
Parentheses - Power (Exponent, in some terms) - Multiplication/Division - Addition/Subtraction. This could be remembered by the memonic fo PPMDAS - Pretty Please My Dear Aunt Sally. M/D & A/S are worked from left to right in order.

Thus, the equation would go:
6�2(1+2)
6�2*3
3*3
9
Yes, that is my final answer.


Others work out of 'left-to-right' sequence & come up with:
6�2(1+2)
6�2(3)
6�6
1

The correct answer is 1. The second way you worked out the equation was correct, Beetle.

But you work from left to right when conducting the mathematical operation when working the expression. Can you give me a reference that refutes the standard order of operation?

Further explanation addresses the Associative Properties as a computational strategy. The equation can be rewritten out as:

Six divided by two times the quantity of one plus two
or
Six divided by two times three

These can be grouped & yield the answers:

(6�2)*3 = 3*3 = 9 working left to right
6�(2*3)= 6�6 = 1 working right to left

Division indicates the multiplication of the inverted number, or written out:

6 * 1/2 * (1+2) => (6*3)/2 => 18/2 => 9

Want me to prove that zero equals one? Or how to work a slide rule?

Try the equation on a calculator that has the parenthesis. My Texas Instruments TI-30 SLR+ gives the answer as 9.


Final answer & I still don't need to call a friend or get audience voting.

LOL, how do we know the answer?

Is it posted somewhere or are we going by our Bella EXPERTS

I am so impressed with how Beetle just jumps in and figures stuff out - way to go Mr. Math!!!!

Had enough math in getting my degree... & all I wanted to do was fly, so I went the Aerospace route. Okay, I am a rocket scientist.

< addition: My studies came before desktop computers & cheap scientific calculators. It was pencil & paper crunching out the numbers. >

My husband is the math expert, not me, although I do help students with it in the private school I volunteer at. I will ask others at school about it Monday and will have my husband look at it again later when he gets home, but from what I have learned, it is worked in the following way.

You need to use distributive property in this problem. First things first, (1+2) =3 .

6 / 2(3)
6 / 6 = 1

You need to eliminate the parentheses before you can move on to dividing.

Well I'm definitely no rocket scientist, but I have stayed in a Holiday Inn Express! :) I also had a middle school algebra teacher who REFUSED to let me sleep in his class (Thank you Mr.Brammer!) I consulted [i]Basic Rules of Algebra, Algebraic Fractions, Laws of Exponents, and Roots/Radicals[/i] by Charles Ormsby. He states &quot;Letters or symbols should be considered placeholders for numbers...) Let's replace the 2 inside the parenthesis with x and see how this problem works out 6 / 2(1+x) 6 / (2+2x) or on a blackboard would be written [u]6[/u] (2+2x) plug 2 back in for x and you get 1 You are correct Lisa Using a variable forces you to keep the parenthesis and use the distributive property, which you should do anyway. Mr.Brammer forced us to work hundreds of these on the blackboard in front of the class. (This was before schools worried about kid's &quot;self esteem) He didn't care to berate you a little if you kept getting them wrong. Thanks again Mr.Brammer, RIP

Odd thing to be going around on Facebook.

But the answer is 1.

In the right hand term, 2+1 in brackets equals 3, just as it does when it's not in brackets. Multipled by the 2 next to it, you get 6. 6 divided by 6 is 1.

Well we know to do the brackets first and 2+1 = 3
but when once you get
6/2(3)
the question is, where do you go from there?
If it were written 6 / 2 x 3 the answer would be 9
but if the 3 were an x and it were written 6/2x, the answer would be 1