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Re: Maidir le: Octave and Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally
From: |
John B. Thoo |
Subject: |
Re: Maidir le: Octave and Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally |
Date: |
Tue, 31 May 2011 06:35:33 -0700 |
On May 30, 2011, at 6:41 AM, John Swensen wrote:
> The expansion of PEDMAS is
> "Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication and Division, and Addition and
> Subtraction".
> The "and" for both DM and AS implies they are of equal precedence and
> therefore it is still correct. I guess the left to right for equal
> precedence is implied.
>
> John Swensen
It is interesting to note that ``the rules for the order of operations were not
agreed upon until the twentieth century: $24 \div 4 \times 6$ might be $36$ or
$1$, depending on the author, and $3 \times 4 - 2$ might mean $6$ or $10$'' [1,
p. 309].
[1] Jeff Suzuki, A History of Mathematics, Prentice Hall (2002).
---John.
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"This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice in it and be glad" (Ps
118:24). Oohrah! (USMC)