Can't believe you didn't make the poll public. The dummies will never fess up now.

Definitely should have been public. My answer was.

 

Highlight for answer:

15

The greatest part is you could tell through the thread of the people who traditionally have not been good at math answered 0 and was confused as to why it was not so clear to everyone else.

The greatest part is you could tell through the thread of the people who traditionally have not been good at math answered 0 and was confused as to why it was not so clear to everyone else.

 

Is it funny?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't recall when I learned order of operations, but a big "thank you" goes out to whichever one of my teachers at Mother of Good Counsel School managed to get that one to stick. Strangely, I have no recollection of "PEDMAS" or any other mnemonic that would have helped me remember it, though I'm certain I was taught that way.

I've never heard of PEDMAS but my Aunt Sally is someone I'll never forget.

Who the hell is Aunt Sally?

Who the hell is Aunt Sally?

"Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally" is the mnemonic device commonly used to teach the "order of operations". The first letters in the device are used to represent the operations. They correspond as follows:

 

P - Parenthesis

E - Exponents

M - Multiplication

D - Division

A - Addition

S - Subtraction

'unsquare'? 'unsquare'?

 

How is that a word?

 

Squaring and unsquaring? I hate everything about that. What do they call a cube root? Uncubing? And beyond that? Un-nth-ing?

 

This was in the text book that way - it was not just a teacher being creative. I almost cried.

The greatest part is you could tell through the thread of the people who traditionally have not been good at math answered 0 and was confused as to why it was not so clear to everyone else.

 

 

Or ... there are people like me who are excellent at math (and love riddles) who still messed up. So PP92, take consolation that even people who are good at math also went left to right and did the good old ___ x 0 = 0.

 

By the way at the writing of this post, 0 is winning the poll 27-23. I bet every person who put down zero is 100% confident their answer is correct like I was.

Or ... there are people like me who are excellent at math (and love riddles) who still messed up. So PP92, take consolation that even people who are good at math also went left to right and did the good old ___ x 0 = 0.

 

By the way at the writing of this post, 0 is winning the poll 27-23. I bet every person who put down zero is 100% confident their answer is correct like I was.

I am too much of a cynic. I knew it could not be that easy.

I don't recall when I learned order of operations, but a big "thank you" goes out to whichever one of my teachers at Mother of Good Counsel School managed to get that one to stick. Strangely, I have no recollection of "PEDMAS" or any other mnemonic that would have helped me remember it, though I'm certain I was taught that way.

 

My thank you went out to Harry Moody at Trinity. I probably heard it before at St. Martha but Harry had a way of making things stick in your brain.

My thank you went out to Harry Moody at Trinity. I probably heard it before at St. Martha but Harry had a way of making things stick in your brain.

 

Mine probably would have been Dennis Esterle in Algebra I if I learned it then. Most of what I remember from Harry Moody was "Getslow you schmo, shut your mouth and do some math." That was right before he threw an eraser at my head.

I am too much of a cynic. I knew it could not be that easy.

 

Which is why math is stupid.

What makes it worse is that I wanted to say 15 but my brain said...."you doofus when have you ever in your life multiplied something by 0 and gotten anything other than 0?"

 

So frustrating.

"Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally" is the mnemonic device commonly used to teach the "order of operations". The first letters in the device are used to represent the operations. They correspond as follows:

 

P - Parenthesis

E - Exponents

M - Multiplication

D - Division

A - Addition

S - Subtraction

 

Aunt Sally hasn't attended a family reunion in quite some time. She's always been a loner.