A letter in the Telegraph yesterday by a lecturer said she has undergraduates who don’t know how to do this sum.
My 10 year old took 5 seconds. When I asked him when it took him so long - he said because he thought I was asking him a trick question.
The 14 year old took less than 1 second.
I refuse to say how long it took me.
Ok I’m an idiot for ticking the multiple choice button. Just choose 1 answer.
Is it 10-2 /4 or 10- 2/4??? so either 2 or 9.5
I took it as two-fourths:cool:
Yes it’s 10 minus 2 fourths.
There was me staring at it thinking I was being stupid but didn’t want to look down the page in case of spoilers. I thought it was 10-2 then /4 
I took long enough to work that out though, I have a bit of a mental maths problem. Could do the most complicated algebra or anything like that at school… just couldn’t do it in my head
it took me 4/6 of a second:w00t:
[Anorak mode on]
The rule about which takes priority is that unless there are brackets telling you otherwise, you ALWAYS do multiplication and division before addition and subtraction.
So for the question you asked, you should do the “2/4” bit first, and then do the “10 -” bit.
If it has brackets in though, you do the bits in brackets first, whatever’s in the brackets. So “(10-2) / 4” means you do 10 take away 2 first, (that’s 8) then divide by 2.
[Anorak mode off]
Brackets
Orders (e.g. X^Y)
Division
Multiplication
Addition
Subtraction
Apologies for being picky, but division is exactly the same thing as multiplication, the only difference is what you multiply by. A number divided by 5 is exactly the same as that number multiplied by one fifth.
Same thing goes for addition and subtraction: 5 minus 3 is exactly the same as 5 plus -3.
(Can someone PLEASE help me off with this bleedin’ anorak!)
you are correct sir but it is aimed at little kids, im a bit more advanced in my maths now 
honest Im a maths student whats your excuse 
BODMAS
great stuff, but lets just say using the division operator makes for easier notation 
Very true, it does indeed make for easier notation, but 558’s list implied that division takes precedence over multiplication, when in fact it doesn’t.
(And my arm’s still stuck in the sleeve…)
it does or you get a different result to standard:
2 / 4 * 4 = 2 (not 1/8)
i.e. BODMAS not BOMDAS
or am i not getting you point
I was taught it in the order BODMAS but then with the state of my school you cannot trust anything they tell you 
‘Division’ and ‘Multiplication’ are the same thing, really, they get done at the same time or in any order.
2 = 34/6 = (34)/6 = 3*(4/6)
So what is the resistance across the long diagonal of a cube of 1 ohm resistors?
Well I am glad to see what a clever bunch of LBers you all are.
Teach me for trying to be clever.
this may put me in the geek bracket (so what’s new) but the way it was written was a tad confusing… I read it as 10-2 / 4, so 2, but 10 - 2/4’s or 1 half, is 9.5 so fair play, I got it wrong, but only by over thinking it…
