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 Originally Posted by Lukie
meh.. the TI-85 is almost 20 years old and was replaced by the TI-86.. the 86 returns 288 as does the TI-83+ and TI-89 that I own.
Windows vista calculator, google calculator, and bing calculator all also give the answer 288.
Google
48/2(9+3) - Bing
we'll just have to agree to disagree. It wouldn't make much sense to have an order of operations if it were necessary to add brackets to everything to make it unambiguous... in that case the order of operations might as well read 'B', then do everything else left to right. Another point is that the field of mathematics is such that there is usually exactly one correct answer and it would blow my mind if something as relatively simple as this could be (correctly) interpreted in more than one way.
No you can agree that we just have to agree to disagree, but the original problem is ambiguous and that has been made very clear in this thread.
If you think the authority of your calculators is the final authority on this issue, then you really don't understand this issue.
I'll say this clearly. Because there is no authority to decide, and because both the order of operations you know and are comfortable with and the order of operations you don't agree with have been taught as true, the original problem is mathematically ambiguous.
It's like saying: Which is correct: The colors of the birds are red, white and blue. OR The color of the birds are red, white, and blue.
There is no deep truth to which order of operations is correct, so yours is no better than theirs. You can not like this for the rest of your days but if you say the original problem is unambiguous you need to qualify it with, "to me." Because it is ambiguous.
edit: also, something like this can be correctly interpreted in more than one way. Three ways. And one way is more correct than the other two.
The answer is 2.
The answer is 288.
The question should be ignored because it is ambiguous.
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