this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2024
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Showerthoughts

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PEMDAS is technically correct, but morally wrong (lemmy.world)
submitted 9 months ago by Chainweasel@lemmy.world to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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If we're supposed to be able to understand math as easily as a language, we should be able to read it from left to right like a language.
Yes, I know there's lots other languages that go right to left or top to bottom, but the point is you don't have to go jumping around the page or sentence figuring out which word should be read first based on which characters it contains.
We put the first word first, then the second word second, etc.
Why can't we just write equations in the order they were meant to be solved?

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[–] ElectroVagrant@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

A more fun variation on this would be to contest mathematical notation. PEMDAS is one thing, but mathematical notation? Not only might you get lost in the order of operations, now you're lucky if you can even read it without committing yourself to the maths cubicles.

Yeah, they don't get dungeons, they get cubicles because it's a geometrically appropriate hell.