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Possible Duplicate:
What is 48÷2(9+3)?
6/2*(1+2) is 1 or 9?
order of operations division

Apparently a very simple question but My question basically is, whether the answer of the following equation is 9 or 1?

6 / 2 ( 1 + 2 )

Or put another way, do we divide first or multiply first? From a computer programming language perspective, we would solve this either left to right or right to left but I want to know the mathematical answer.

My thinking: There is not enough information in the question to solve this.

Community
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Aamir
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    Others:http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/33215/what-is-48293?lq=1 – Raskolnikov Sep 14 '12 at 10:06
  • It's ambiguous. Look, I'll tell you up front that in the following, addition will take precedence over multiplication. Now, what is 2*2+6? Do you answer 10? That's incorrect, because I said that addition would take precedence over multiplication, so it's 16. You have to have either a convention, or the equivalent of wffs in terms of form to answer your question. You have neither here. So, you get to decide on the convention as you wish, and then precede from there. – Doug Spoonwood Sep 14 '12 at 12:13

1 Answers1

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Little elaborate your question 6/2*(1+2) ok

We have a formula to execute expressions is BODMAS which stands for

Bracket Of Division Multiplication Addition Subtraction

and hense your solution as follows:

6/2*(1+2)

6/2*(3)

3*(3)

9

PURNA MAGUM
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  • Division and Multiplication are one and same thing. Similarly Subtraction and Additions are one and same thing. So this BODMAS theory might be good for elementary school but otherwise, this fails. – Aamir Sep 14 '12 at 11:53
  • @Aamir In addition to BODMAS, we perform the computations from left to right. Therefore, PURNA MAGNUM is correct. – Kris Williams Sep 14 '12 at 12:01
  • What is 48 ÷ 2 (9+3)?

    48 ÷ 2 * (9+3)

    48 ÷ 2 * (12)

    24 * (12)

    288

     – PURNA MAGUM Sep 17 '12 at 11:36