There is no trick. The trick is you are on a message board full of math flunkies.

I can honestly say that the "order of operations" is a phrase I do not recall ever hearing prior to this evening.

It was the rule when I was in elementary school 35 years ago...... that is all I know.

Nobody remembers "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally"? It is probably the only thing I do remember from that far back.

Nope, tonight is definitely the first time.

This rule was conceived as soon as basic algebra needed proper notation... which according to this guy is 1600's.

More details here:
http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/52582.html

"The convention that multiplication precedes addition and subtraction was in use in the earliest books employing symbolic algebra in the 16th century. The convention that exponentiation precedes multiplication was used in the earliest books in which exponents appeared. "

http://jeff560.tripod.com/operation.html

http://i444.photobucket.com/albums/q...cracy10qg3.png

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_S1bdNBvOUR...diocracy13.jpg

Electrolytes!

so few years after baddog was born :winkwink::1orglaugh

http://i.imgur.com/bpbAJ.jpg

The TI-84 has spoken.

A plague of locusts shall be brought upon the heads to all those who deny him.

ahhh i remember my TI-82

:1orglaugh

This thread was hysterical.

I understand that the theory may have existed, but did they always call it that? I am pretty sure in the 60's we always used brackets.

Bedmas .

edit

Should have read further down...

It's scary to think most people can't figure that out. I guess we older guys have one advantage, we actually went to a school that taught us something.

the answer is 1 anything x 0 = 0 the addition is at the end after the equals = symbol plus + 1 so answer is can only be one.

Those that think there is any other outcome are mixing up the order of the equation.

We learned it as BODMAS

Brackets
O-something?
Division
Multiplication
Addition
Subtraction

Hmm, maybe it was BOMDAS.

PS: The correct answer is green.

you can't be serious.
only a really dumb person can't calculate something like this and you are making a thread out of it?

lol wtf with the first few replies, the answer is 1.

(anyfuckingthing) x 0 always = 0

priceless :1orglaugh

Mind you, there are too many priceless replies in here to give due credit. Holy fuck, what has the world come to.

41 of course :)

If you put this equation into an excel spreadsheet cell (=40+40*0+1), the calculated answer is 41 :thumbsup

wrong....

apply it to real life. if i had 40 bucks, and i said i'd give you that plus double whatever money you had in your pocket....

40 + 2 x X = your money

badly notated.... should be 40 + (2 x X)... but similar to the original equation.

so if you had no money in your pocket (X = 0), doing the math from left to right would get you $0.

40 + 2 = 42, then 42 x 0 = 0?

so did my 40 bucks disappear because you're broke?

PEMDAS!

I'm staggered that people are applying scientific maths to a non-scientific maths problem.

There is no parentheses (sp) so you don't insert one (as a scientific calculator would do, because it obviously assumes it's a scientific equation - you cant add the parentheses as you type in the equation). The order of operation only comes into it when calculating scientific maths, so you go left to right, because this quite clearly is NOT a scientific maths equation, due to the fact there are NO parentheses.

People who are adding them in themselves are like the dumb fucks who indicate right at a 4 exit roundabout when they are going straight over - there is no need!

And I say dumb fucks affectionately ;)

(.)(.) + $$$ = ( • )( • )

math we can all agree upon :thumbsup

Not quite correct, because you'd need to say you'd give me 40 bucks and another 40 bucks, times that 80 bucks by whatever I have in my pocket, in this case 0, then a buck on top. Which is a buck.

Now, if you said you'd give me 40 bucks, plus 40 bucks multiplied by what I have in my pocket (in other words, you verbally added the parentheses), plus a buck, then you'd give me 41 bucks.

Though I could be wrong, with, or without the parens, I think the rules still apply;
http://www.mathgoodies.com/lessons/v...perations.html

:1orglaugh :thumbsup

how fucking old are you

even without parentheses, multiplication is to be done before addition

A lot of non gamblers here, obviously.

Not in non-scientific maths, no.

This is the official gfy intelligence test

Open the calculator on your computer, and type in the question, hitting enter to see each step. Now switch to scientific and enter it, watching each step.

standard:

40 + 40 = 80
* 0 = 0
+ 1 = 1

scientific
40 + 40 = 80
* 0 = 0
+ (now the number on screen jumps to 40, as ONLY in scientific maths does the order come into it) 1 = 41

Go to wolframalpha.com and use it!

41 it is!