maths question

pokerpete · Post by **pokerpete** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 11:49 am

I posted the same poll on a poker firum, a cage fighting forum and here.
most of the poker players got it right.
about half of the cage fighters got it right.
Fruit manchine players have let themselves down here.

The answer is 41
in the absence of brackets, you do the multiplication first
so it's 40x0=0 then +40+1=41

to get 1 you'd have to add brackets as follows;
(40+40)x0+1

to get 0 you'd have to also reorder
(40+40+1)x0

to get 81 you'd have to lay it out x0+41+41+1 which makes no sense.
Hadn't even spotted the (40+40)x(0+1)=80.

41 Gentlemen

all but four of us, hang your heads.

deano8177 · Post by **deano8177** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 11:55 am

My heads telling me it's 81 but the calculator is telling me 41 and I don't know why. 40+40=80 x that but 0 is still 80 (I think) then +1 should be 81.

Scott · Post by **Scott** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 11:58 am

I still make it 1, for the reasons feeder put.

pokerpete · Post by **pokerpete** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 11:59 am

i just explained above why it's 41
40x0=0 as you do the multiplication FIRST
0+40=40
40+1=41

Scott · Post by **Scott** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 12:03 pm

I did'nt know thats how its done, i just did it left to right in the order it was presented, you learn something new everyday.

deano8177 · Post by **deano8177** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 12:27 pm

The way I look at it is the way you put it.

40+40 is first in the sum not 0x40.

The way I look at it is this... If I had 40 pound coins and my fellow player had 40 pound coins, we then put them together after a day of punting= £80 we then x it by nothing what still makes £80, and then I put another nugget in I won from the quiz machine. That must equal to 81. If it don't then next time i'll use your method to take an extra few coins and just say I used maths to work it out.

Scott · Post by **Scott** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 12:32 pm

80 x 0 is 0

A million x 0 is 0

gambogaz1 · Post by **gambogaz1** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 12:37 pm

impossible to get 81 or 0 from that equation.

But how you interpret the sum will give either 1 or 41.

If you do that via a calculator it gives 41 so that must be the right answer but If I'd have done it in my head I'd have

40+40=80
80 X 0 = 0
0 + 1 = 1

Cracking question anyway

Scott · Post by **Scott** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 12:44 pm

My calculator says 1, if you type in 40 + 40 x 0 + 1 = 1 on my calculator.

I see what you mean about brackets though.

kong · Post by **kong** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 12:54 pm

Without the brackets in the equation it relies on operator precedence, where the multiplications are done first. Hence

40 + (40 x 0) + 1

should be calculated as 41.

If you plug the numbers into a calculator, you get a different answer because you override the operator precedence, effectively you are doing a different sum:

(40 + 40) x 0 + 1

=

80 x 0 + 1

=

1.

There's no way from the original equation that either 81 or 0 can possibly be correct!

Nice to have a thread on here provoking a little debate eh?!

Captain.Tattybojangles · Fri Nov 11, 2011 1:44 pm

Maths doesn't always read left to right....but in my books it does lol
so I stick with 1 haha

Marcossvon · Post by **Marcossvon** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 6:28 pm

My dear aunt Sally..... What have we got ourselves into?!!

deano8177 · Post by **deano8177** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 6:55 pm

What's 1+1+2, first one back with the correct answer gets a free pint.

mr lugsy · Post by **mr lugsy** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 7:44 pm

if you were to 'divide' a number by zero you would come up with 1 i think.

harry2 · Post by **harry2** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 10:45 pm

Technically it's infinity.