For the programmers: operator precedence.

I guess remembering grade school order of operation means you're a guinus now? Bar has gotten pretty low...

And it will go even lower as people start relying mpre on AI...

Why? Because a bunch of dead Greeks say so!

The Greeks certainly didn't come up with PEMDAS. US teachers too lazy to teach kids actual maths did. And that's before taking into account that the Greeks didn't come up with Algebra.

Boomers and Xgens need to prove, that they remember basic school math in FB lmao.

US teachers too lazy to teach kids actual maths did.

What’s lazy about learning PEMDAS? And what’s the non-lazy/superior way?

Who, the people who never had calculators in their pockets growing up? No worries, we can do math better than you.

lmao

Learning the actual algebraic laws, instead of an order of operations to mechanically replicate. PEMDAS might get you through a standardised test but does not convey any understanding, it's like knowing that you need to press a button to call the elevator but not understand what elevators are for.

Though "lazy teachers" might actually be a bit too charitable a take given the literacy rates of US college graduates mastering in English. US maths teachers very well might not understand basic maths themselves, thinking it's all about a set of mechanical operations.

Not a genius. But if subtraction is last, why isn't it 9-4?

Because its not really "1 plus 3", its negative 1 plus 3 which is two. I know it seems a little weird but the minus sign is " tied" to the thing following it.

Gen xers? Don't irk them. They're not noticing you right now.

Very independent, and cranky generation.

Addition/subtraction work out the same regardless of how you order the operations. If you do subtraction last you start with the original:

9-1+3

and you are adding 3 to the result of (9-1). Since you are trying to perform it before the (9-1) operation is carried out, you can add 3 to the 9:

12-1 = 11

or you can add three to the -1 and get:

9+2 = 11

You only end up with 9-4 if you were subtracting 3 rather than adding three. It all becomes more obvious if you read the original as:

9 + (-1) + 3

It's multiplication or division from left to right followed by addition or subtraction, also from left to right.

That's where a lot of people fuck up.

I'm a BEDMAS man myself

÷ could be a minus sign, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_sign?wprov=sfla1

This kind of problem falls under "communicating badly and acting smug when misunderstood". Use parenthesis and the problem goes away.

Words that End in GRY

xkcd (xkcd.com)

Engagement bait

Please don't include X with the boomers. Since we stepped into the real world and realized it functions completely differently than what we were raised to believe, life's just been a neverending string of "wait, that was wrong too?" We just want to survive another day under the radar.

Sorry fellow X'rs for publicly acknowledging our existence. Hopefully this post doesn't get any upvotes. *Pulls blanket back over my head.

That's the point.

Set the bar low, but just high enough that tons of people still trip over it.

Sit back and enjoy the comment wars.

The people who are confident but wrong are too proud to admit they were wrong even if they realize it, and comment angrily.

The people who are right and know why, comment for corrections and some to show off how S-M-R-T they are.

The people who are wrong but willing to accept that just have their realization and probably don't think about it again. So do the people who don't know and/or care.

But those first two groups will keep the post going in both shares and comments, because "look at all these wrong people"

It's all designed to boost engagement.

Parenthesis, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction.

should actually be

Parenthesis, exponents, (multiplication and division), (addition and subtraction).

Addition and subtraction are given the same priority, and are done in the same step, from left to right.

It's not a great system of notation, it could be made far clearer (and parenthesis allow you to make it as clear as you like), but it's essentially the universal standard now and it's what we're stuck with.