GD Flame War Over A Mathematical Equation

[KittyWampus]

Life is good.

Except for when it isn't.

[Drale]

1. The answer is 42

Its always 42

[chollybocker]

4. No, the answer is 46. It is, was, and ever will be, 46.

You're obviously just a paid troll for the 42ers.

:rofl:

[Drale]

6. Never read Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy?

[MadBadger]

10. No, Its always 4

[Sonoman]

2. Too nt

[leftstreet]

3. It's DU. Do the math

:o

[rurallib]

5. hasn't FR had one going for years on 2 + 2?

[JackBeck]

7. I'm 37.

Back in my day, no one argued about Math and Science. We all learned the same theories and applied the same formulas to math equations.

But something changed over the last 17 years and now there's apparently a new way to do math, which has caused problems between parents from my generation and their children.

When did doing math change?

[Gman]

8. Now they teach different, and more understandable ways

to reach the same answer. It's no less accurate and builds the same logic and reason skills. Math did not change, it cannot change.

[JackBeck]

11. As someone who accelerated at math, why was my answer different than others?

[PVnRT]

19. Accelerated?

[Ikonoklast]

21. Well, he never mentions his English skills, just math.

I was in an Accelerated English class once, but things went by too quickly for me, and I had to drop out.

[PVnRT]

30. I was in accelerated courses. It took a lot of energy to do that.

*HINT: F = ma

[Ikonoklast]

33. Well, I am an alumnus of Delta-V High.

Go Vectors!

[Marie Marie]

9. Hate to admit it but I'm as bad at math as

Teabaggers are at spelling.

[pipi_k]

20. Me too. It's like this whole foreign language to me...

that I either can't...or don't want to...learn.

I see numbers and that's it. My mind shuts off.

Although I do like Science, which I guess is unusual, seeing as I've always heard that Math and Science go together somehow.

Love Science, hate Math.

strange...

[GoneOffShore]

12. What is 6 times 7?

[demmiblue]

13. I hardly call it a Flame War. n/t

[KittyWampus]

14. It's still early

:)

[JackRiddler]

15. It's fourth-grade arithmetic, and makes me wonder what constitutes "viral"

[Renew Deal]

16. Yes, and the answer is 2

Google is wrong

[JackRiddler]

17. Obviously the answer is 2. The question is, why is arithmetic now a "puzzler" to Internet Americans?

[PVnRT]

23. Not the way it was written

You cannot "imply" parentheses in a mathematical equation. They are there or they aren't.

[JackRiddler]

26. The one I saw had parentheses and worked out to 2. However...

Even if the one you saw didn't have parentheses and properly worked out to 288, I still fail to see how and why it's making the rounds as though it were the Facebook version of Fermat's theorem. Because either way, it's a cut above 2+(12/6), see?

[PVnRT]

27. A cut above four?

The one posted here in GD did not have parentheses:

48 / 2(9+3)
48 / 2*12
24*12
288

To be 2, (2*(9+3)) would have to be in the denominator. Period.

As for why it's making the rounds, it's another one of those attempts to "prove" that younger people are stupid and inferior to boomers, who learned everything the right way and have never done anything wrong.

[eShirl]

32. ok look at it this way

48 / 2(9+3)

try replacing (9+3) with the variable X

48/2X= ?

24/X= ?

ok, now put in the known value for X from the original form of the equation

24/(9+3) = 24/12 = 2

[demwing]

29. Clearly, it isn't "Obvious"

and you don't have to be condescending :)

[DevonRex]

22. It is 288.

[NoGOPZone]

18. Just wait until the Free Republic thread that claims

that this question is part of an Obama plot to force postfix notation upon an unwilling American public.

[ScreamingMeemie]

24. Yeah...well on Facebook I said the answer was 9, and apparently it's

1. Color me stupid.

[meow mix]

25. loved the hitler parody, LOL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwpWw-iVKHc

[NYC Liberal]

28. That thread is still not as funny as the moon bombing one,

which will live in infamy til the end of DU.

Give it a couple hundred more posts though and it may get there!

[Javaman]

31. 23. nt