Late Sunday night poser

[toml_12953]

(10-26-2024 11:09 AM)teenix Wrote:  Why are there so many problems published like...

2 divided by 2 divided by 2 divided by 2 = ?

If you solved it as written, like using an HP-35, the answer would be displayed as .25 (1/4)

My reasoning is 2 divided by nothing means the 2 was divided by something that doesn't exist and therefore never changed. Is that true, who decides?

Late Sunday night rant :-)

Since division is performed left to right, according to PEMDAS, you should do it this way:

((2 divided by 2) divided by 2) divided by 2

((2 / 2) / 2) / 2
(1 / 2) / 2
.5 / 2
.25

There's no ambiguity at all. Where did you get 2 divided by nothing?