Can you solve the simple maths question confusing adults?

[SoiBiker]

They let someone who can't do basic arithmetic near a computer in the 70s?

there was no one there smart enough to keep me away from my commodore 28...

good try, but

edit: albert einstein failed in high school.... just saying.

No, he didn't.

What's a Commodore 28?

[wpcoe]

I can honestly say I don't think I was ever taught to do multiplication/division before addition/subtraction. By any chance is this a British maths vs American math thing?

No. It's a right vs wrong thing.

Are you saying that as a product of the education system in the US? I'd like to hear from an American who was educated in the 1960s or earlier say they were taught that order of operations.

I'm still shocked. I graduated with a 4.0 average, have higher-than-average IQ, and honestly do not recall ever being taught that!

[manfredtillmann]

They let someone who can't do basic arithmetic near a computer in the 70s?

there was no one there smart enough to keep me away from my commodore 28...

good try, but

edit: albert einstein failed in high school.... just saying.

No, he didn't.

What's a Commodore 28?

sure? see, another thing they did not instill properly into my head.

a commodore 28 was... ah, yes, it was a vic20. just googled it. could have sworn...

lucky we have the young ones to keep us on our tows. please don't point out more of my short comings, i have suffered enough today.

[SoiBiker]

I won't ask how you were using a computer released in 1980 during the 70s, then...

[manfredtillmann]

I won't ask how you were using a computer released in 1980 during the 70s, then...

ok, just to clear this up. don't give me stick over it, ok? this is just for you! and the others watching...

i worked for thomas cook travel in hamburg/ west germany, from '76 to '79 or so, and after that for a shipping company and an air freight agent.

we used the very early upstarts of 'computing', a railway seat booking system called 'epa' and a 'lufthansa' orientated booking system called 'start'.

we also had the absolute beginnings of computer based book keeping with an olivetti (don't know the english word) lochkarten (holes in cards) system.

it was fore - front technology.

i learned electronic communications back than and the language was not much different from 'telex', where similar rules regarding capitals etc. applied.

when my father - a gadget man all his life - purchased his first 'computer' - the said vic20 - which i confused with the commodore or amiga 128 ( close enough is still past the target - f.k. weachter) i tried connecting to others with a boot shaped rubber thing into which i had to insert the telephone 'handle'.

and so it started...

hope to meet you one day.

cheers

[GanDoonToonPet]

The question is deliberately misleading & ambiguous to the untrained eye. The traditional ÷ symbol is an instruction to divide by the number, or term, to the right. The / symbol can be used in this way but in this instance it indicates a fraction, with the number to the left of the / being the numerator & the number to the right the denominator.

Try rewriting 1/3 as a horizontal line, with the 1 above & the 3 below then it will make more sense.

Alternatively, rewrite 1/3 as a decimal then the equation becomes:

9 - 3 ÷ 0.3... + 1 = ?

or

9 - 3 ÷ 0.3R + 1 = ?

You then use the accepted rule that multiplication / division is always carried out before addition / subtraction - BODMAS or it's variants BIDMAS, BEDMAS & PEMDAS.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClYdw4d4OmA

There are many variants of the OPs question. Try these old chestnuts...

48 ÷ 2 (9 + 3) = x

2 + 2 + 2 x 2 - 2 x 2 + 2 = y

[overherebc]

I make it 3.

But maths is not my strong point.

9 - 3 = 6

1 third of 6 is 2

2 + 1 = 3

3 ???????????????

Hmmmm but 6 divided by a 1/3 is 18

So could be 19

Thats what I get. 19.