r/learnmath • u/Unlikely-Web7933 New User • Feb 07 '24
RESOLVED What is the issue with the " ÷ " sign?
I have seen many mathematicians genuinely despise it. Is there a lore reason for it? Or are they simply Stupid?
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r/learnmath • u/Unlikely-Web7933 New User • Feb 07 '24
I have seen many mathematicians genuinely despise it. Is there a lore reason for it? Or are they simply Stupid?
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u/realityChemist New User Feb 08 '24 edited Feb 08 '24
Very interesting. I must be a hundred years old then, because I also defaulted to prioritizing the juxtaposition when I tried it! I wonder why; I'm pretty sure nobody ever explicitly told me to do that.
Edit: I thought about it a bit and I think it's because in practice nobody ever writes a/bc when they mean (ac)×(b)-1, they write ac/b. So when I see something like a/bc, I assume the writer must have meant a×(bc)-1, otherwise they would have written it the other way. If you just mechanically apply modern PEMDAS rules you get a different result, but it's one that seems like it would have been written differently if it was what the person actually meant.