[Closed] 2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2-2+2 x 0?

It's 0, right...?

what's the operator precedence ? 😉

For the mathematically confused: [url= http://www.mathsisfun.com/operation-order-pemdas.html ]PEDMAS[/url].

(or [url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/maths/number/orderoperationrev1.shtml ]BODMAS[/url] if you want to be very British about it)

Who says standards of mathematics are slipping eh?

0 isn't it?

BODMAS? if so, 26

26 assuming conventional precedence.

Anything multiplied by 0 will give an answer of 0.

BODMAS? if so, 26
26 assuming conventional precedence.

Hurrah, the engineers arrive 😀

Lol

Hmm. Maths is dumb. If you have something and then multiple it by nothing, then how can the something that you had suddenly become nothing? Where's the logic in that?

Anything multiplied by 0 will give an answer of 0.

it's only the last 2 that is multiplied by 0.

2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2-2+(2 x 0)

don simon - Member
Anything multiplied by 0 will give an answer of 0.

Yes it will. But your still wrong

I'd be interested in the professions/jobs of anyone who does not think this is 0.

My 9 year old strolled past - saw this thread and laughed - saying "anything multiplied by zero is zero... isn't it..."

Any arguments about this will be about the way it is written and what it "means"

Engineer. And it is not zero

My 9 year old strolled past - saw this thread and laughed - saying "anything multiplied by zero is zero... isn't it..."

Tell her maths teacher!

And there we go... yes we all remember BODMAS from school... but in the real world the operations are performed sequentially unless the brackets are explicit...

Software Engineer - it's 26

Surely, the only way to have this not equalling zero, is if there were some brackets missed off the op...?

Should be 26. Multiply / divide operations take precedence over add / subtract, then you evaluate left to right. So, you've got the first twelve 2's for a total of 28, minus 2 to see if you're being observant to make 26, then plus (2 x 0) to still equal 26.

EDIT: Wow, a lot of posts whilst I typed that. Never heard of BODMAS etc.

Yes it will. But your still wrong

It's very worrying when something like this has more people picking the wrong answer!

To agree with those above, the answer is 26.

It's just unfortunate that there isn't an additional 1 at the front of the list, then it could have been in RPN... 😀

I'd be interested in the professions/jobs of anyone who does not think this is 0.

I'd suspect they'll be mostly software geeks or engineers.

Software Engineer myself, so I [i]know[/i] it's not zero 🙂

[i]I'd be interested in the professions/jobs of anyone who does not think this is 0.[/i]

Engineer - 26

26. Jeebus weeps.

Surely, the only way to have this not equalling zero, is if there were some brackets missed off the op...?

no, because it's convention to do the multiplication bit first, in the absence of any brackets.

don simon - Member
Yes it will. But your still wrong

How can that be both wrong and right.
Any number multiplied by zero is zero. The answer to the problem stated above might be different from that statement, but there is nothing to connect the two.

True

Here's the working for those struggling:

[code]2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2-2+2 x 0
 
= (2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2-2) + (2 x 0)
 
= (26) + (0)
 
= 26[/code]

Those getting zero are reading it as (2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2-2+2) x 0 which is wrong.

I'd be interested in the professions/jobs of anyone who does not think this is 0.

I work in IT, but that's not why I know it's not zero. I know it's not zero because I went to school.

my 9 & 11 yr-olds say it's zero (9yr - anything x zero is zero) and 32 (11yr - saw them all as plusses on her 1 second skim 🙄 )

how many lashes of the cat for each ?

This is basic [url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/maths/number/orderoperationrev1.shtml ]GSCE maths[/url] by the way 😀

I'd ask the zero folk what they think 2 + 3 x 5 - 4 is?

(Hint: it's 13)

Engineer - 26

I've reached the dizzy heights of 46 years old without ever knowing that pedmas thing.

Should I be bothered? (i'm not...)

Mech Eng - 26.

What's infinity times zero then?

minus 26 !! - jees, you don't build anyhting important do you IanM ?

Yeah but he always starts at the top 😀

Good thread, BTW. More please.

I'd be interested in the professions/jobs of anyone who does not think this is 0.

yes we all remember BODMAS from school... but in the real world the operations are performed sequentially unless the brackets are explicit...

😯

[url= http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2%2B2%2B2%2B2%2B2%2B2%2B2%2B2%2B2%2B2%2B2%2B2%2B2%2B2-2%2B2x0 ]The real world yesterday.[/url]

scardypants - your 11 yr old is right (in octal)

What's infinity times zero then?

That'll be undefined...

Infinities are buggers like that...

What a packet of nonsense. You could just as easily say it's 24:

(2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2)+((2+2)x0))

Or any other number of combinations.

There's no brackets in the original sum. Therefore it is zero, if it is to be interpreted as it is writed. You can't just add brackets in to try to look clever you know.

flap_jack - Member
scardypants - your 11 yr old is right (in octal)

Yeah Elf, except there are set rules, taught at GCSE level maths, that define exactly how it should be read.

And they say it is 26.

You can't just add brackets in to try to look clever you know.

I didn't - they are just to illustrate who to read it in the correct BODMAS/PEMDAS order.

Some of you lot wooduv bin beaten up on a daily basis if you'd gone my school.

I hope you actually were. You deserved it.

what, as saddest software eng on singletrack. A crowded field, I always thought..

[url= http://lmgtfy.com/?q=2%2B2%2B2%2B2%2B2%2B2%2B2%2B2%2B2%2B2%2B2%2B2%2B2%2B2-2%2B2+x+0 ]Ask google[/url]

I din't see that minus sign. does not in any way change owt.

Can't just throw random brackets about to arrive at the number you want. It's bollocks.

I'm amazed that there are no pedants who've decided to work out the error and quote the answer +/-

Elf: what is 2 + 3 x 5 - 4?

I din't see that minus sign. does not in any way change owt.

Can't just throw random brackets about to arrive at the number you want. It's bollocks.

Just because you don't understand it doesn't mean it's wrong.

Some of you lot wooduv bin beaten up on a daily basis if you'd gone my school.

I hope you actually were. You deserved it.

I was. Thanks.

Just because you don't understand it doesn't mean it's wrong.

Yes it does.

I was. Thanks.

Good.

One question here which interests me is how people would answer the question if it were read out to them verbally. Is BODMAS (I don't think we had parentheses in my youth) a strictly written convention?

> Just because you don't understand it doesn't mean it's wrong.
Yes it does.

I thought only TJ was infallible 😀

Elf: what is 2 + 3 x 5 - 4?

5

17

21

Take yer pick.

Elf earlier 😀

lol

Elfinsafety - you unwittingly (though funnily enough that's a very appropriate word to describe you) have managed to hit the nail on the head when it comes to the dismal state of this country's more advanced scientific and engineering professions.

ome of you lot wooduv bin beaten up on a daily basis if you'd gone my school. I hope you actually were. You deserved it.

[b]This is not difficult stuff.[/b] I learned it in primary school, and frankly it beggars belief that you don't know it. More so when you consider your response when someone quite reasonably points out that you're understanding is wrong.

Being unable to do basic maths is not something to be proud of, yet it's all too common in the UK. "Oooh, don't make it add it up; I don't do maths, me." You wouldn't say, "Don't ask me to do that, I can't read" so why is this any difference.

YOU (and your ilk) are the reason engineering is seen as derogatory these days, and are probably responsible at a base level for the fact that we are never going to leave recession without a paradigm shift in the industrial output of this country.

Interesting question Stoatsbrother.

I would assume that the person reading it to me was reading it in the order they expected the operations to be performed, so this question could be correctly read as:

[i]Two times zero,
plus two, plus two, plus two, plus two, plus two, plus two, plus two,
plus two, plus two, plus two, plus two, plus two, plus two, plus two,
minus two equals?[/i]

😆

Youse lot are just a bunch of nerds.

(Gives GrahamS a Chinese Burn. Pulls plug out of BBC Micro after Graham's spent several hours typing code into it and was just about to run it. Storms off.)

Surely you couldn't do anything until the whole question was read, then apply the rules.

some of you lot wooduv bin beaten up on a daily basis if you'd gone my school

The independent school ? Hope the fees weren't too high 😯

YOU (and your ilk) are the reason engineering is seen as derogatory these days, and are probably responsible at a base level for the fact that we are never going to leave recession without a paradigm shift in the industrial output of this country.

😆

No mate; it's the Chinese churning stuff out for cheaper what will put paid to British Industry, not me.

You're quite angry about this, aren't you?

(Goes off to hang out with the cool kids, talk to girls and smoke cigs)

(Gives GrahamS a Chinese Burn. Pulls plug out of BBC Micro after Graham's spent several hours typing code into it and was just about to run it. Storms off.)

Hah! Backed it up to my 5¼" floppy. Too slow thick kid.

[i]*ooow me arm*[/i]

the Bible that is Excel says 26
.
BUT at the end of the day, where is this useful outside of primary school maths?

Oh no- somebody said 'paradigm shift' we must make some facetime to touch base. Ciao

Just done it on my calculator and the answer is, unsurprisingly, zero.

Tum tee tum tee tum.... 🙂

Hah! Backed it up to my 5¼" floppy

😯

Disgusting pervert. Always knew there was something wrong with your sort. No wonder the girls woon't talk to youse....

Calculators don't work the same way as paper maths should do, Elf.

What, you mean calculators actually work properly? 😀

Youse lot carry on with yer silliness. I'll trust the calculator.

I woon't trust youse lot to build me a house or something probbly fall down cos you've made stuff up rather than doing it properly. 😐

Just done it on my calculator and the answer is, unsurprisingly, zero.

that's not the answer I got
[img] [/img]

I'm a physicist and I say the answer is ambiguous. Bodmas is just convention, nothing to do with mathematics.
Engineers are just inflexible 😉
Proper notation would include parentheses.

By inserting brackets you change the meaning of the Q. There are none shown in the original therefore you do it one step at a time.
Anything time zero is O

Bugger just found another answer who said the same thing.

ran it through matlab (mathematical computer program). its 26.

> Elf: what is 2 + 3 x 5 - 4?
5
17
21
Take yer pick.

What I like best about that response is they are all wrong.

It's 13.

I think the space around the x in thread title misleads. Makes it look like the assign is one sum to be then
Multiplied by the 0.

I've reached the dizzy heights of 46 years old without ever knowing that pedmas thing.

Just done it on my calculator and the answer is, unsurprisingly, zero.

Non-scientific calculators will evaluate the sum as entered and get zero. Any scientific calculator will do it sensibly and give 26.

Of course you could write as

14 * 2 - 2 + 2 * 0

But I suspect that people would still want to do sequential sums rather than following the conventions

of course the sum above could also be re-written as

2 * 0 - 2 + 14 * 2

to help those that are suffering!

But I suspect that I am digressing!