[Math4u] Math persons

"Atadricourses" <bodor7@yahoo.com>

His first letter today:

He gave the website with his rule:

Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.

I could find nothing in this website about his rule.

He has referred to a well-written letter to Dr. Math that points out both sides of the argument

Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.

It is this letter written into Dr. Math that says the quoted rule is on the first website but I did not see it there.

Atadricourses concludes with a P.S. that he is unpersuaded by what answer the computer programs come up with.

His second letter today:

"Atadricourses" <bodor7@yahoo.com>
has written in another letter that indicates he teaches his students his method of calculation with equations in bold print.

My comment is that he seems to spend all his time obsessed with his points of disagreement with the world such as order of calculation and using a colon for a division sign. My guess is his students may be missing out on what they need to know.

I think if I was making the rules, perhaps I would make convention the way Atadricourses wants it to be. Actually, what he says makes sense and I like his convention. But for now we must go with the rest of the world.

Half the time when students write in to this website with

1/2 + 3

but they mean

1/(2+3)

I predict that something will change. Perhaps computers will learn to write horizontal lines with the numerator on top and the denominator on the bottom. Perhaps we will enter a period where enough brackets are always used so that the formula cannot be misinterpreted and later perhaps the rule will later change to the system that Atadricourses advocates. If I am ever checking calculations, I will carefully look at this issue. This is a possible source of real world disasters.

Third letter

Atadricourses responded to the message petits points. I was feeling agreeable but saw nothing added to the original message

Letter 4

Atadricourses sent in another page of the PEMDAS method for order of calculations. The example uses his method of multiplying out the part with no multiplication sign before dividing which we agree not to do. I admire his persistence.

Regards,

Brian

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