I believed from when I was a child right up to about two hours ago-I'm now thirty- six- that
BODMAS meant you had to do the operations in that order. I've only just discovered that division and multiplication have equal precedence as do addition and subtraction.

How the fuck have I gone through most of my life not knowing that, and what were my maths teachers playing at?
( The Awful Puppy Bakery is still bored, Mon 23 Jan 2012, 23:41, 9 replies)

At least you learned it at all.
A, frankly shocking, number of my friends didn't seem to be privy to this little bit of learning. "10 x 4 + 10 x 0 = ?" shouldn't need to be debated...
(Mr._Pickles, Tue 24 Jan 2012, 0:58, closed)

It is indeed sad
that, certainly in the UK, there appears to be no shame in being innumerate. In fact, judging by some of the type I see on telly, it's almost regarded as cool.
( P-MONKE We're all fucked, Tue 24 Jan 2012, 9:40, closed)

Plus it doesn't state when you should do any exponentiation.

( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Tue 24 Jan 2012, 1:04, closed)

It does.
Brackets, order, multiplication.........

The 'order' part is exponents. I don't think that would make much sense to an American, though.
( The Awful Puppy Bakery is still bored, Tue 24 Jan 2012, 1:52, closed)

It is now BIDMAS,I stands for indices.
(sex drugs and jellied eels, Tue 24 Jan 2012, 14:50, closed)

Surely it does kind of make a little bit of difference about the order you do them in...
Consider...
8 - 4 + 2 = ?

You could group it as 8 - (4+2), which would give you 2. Or...

You could group it as (8-4) + 2, which gives you 6.

Basically, though, if you've written your sum as arse-about-face as that, you deserve to be given a wrong answer. You need to add some brackets...

Similarly,

8 / 4 * 2 grouped differently becomes either

8 / (4*2) = 1 or...
(8/4) * 2 = 4.

So... for the times when somebody has set up a very, VERY badly put together sum, it CAN actually matter (purely for convention) which order you do them in...

Would now (that I have bored you all shit-less) be a good time to admit that I used to be a little bit of a maths teacher?
(Serotonicity was a naughty boy on..., Tue 24 Jan 2012, 17:49, closed)

I think the idea is they have equal precedence,
so you do them left to right.
( The Awful Puppy Bakery is still bored, Tue 24 Jan 2012, 18:17, closed)

Well I'm glad I was never a proper maths teacher then.

My rule was always if there was any chance of misinterpreting it, to put some brackets in, which seemed to work out fine.
(Serotonicity was a naughty boy on..., Tue 24 Jan 2012, 18:29, closed)

I've been brushing up my maths at the Khan Academy.
I'm going with what Sal says. He has three degrees and a masters from MIT.
( The Awful Puppy Bakery is still bored, Wed 25 Jan 2012, 1:35, closed)