8÷2(1+3)

[toml_12953]

(12-04-2023 09:46 AM)dm319 Wrote:  

(12-04-2023 12:30 AM)Thomas Klemm Wrote:  Do you agree or do you come up with another special rule out of thin air?

PEMDAS/BODMAS is not the rule book on the rules of algebra. You weren't taught it, and neither was I, so I guess we were taught a series of rules. To be fair, the acronym isn't even that good - it doesn't take into account multiply/divide and addition/subtraction being equal precedence, and it has no mention of the left-to-right rule.

We (in the USA) were taught simple PEMDAS where parentheses have the highest precedence, followed by exponentiation, then multiplication and division are of equal precedence, addition and subtraction are of equal precedence and operations of equal precedence are performed left-to-right. We were never taught that implied multiplication has precedence over explicit. There is neither a "right" or "wrong" way. Both have a good case for use. I agree with those people who call for writers to always using explicit symbols so there is no ambiguity.