• having an agreed-upon convention absolutely matters for arriving at expected computational outcomes,

    Proven rules actually

    we call it a convention

    No we don’t - the order of operations rules

    it’s not a “correct” vs “incorrect” principle of mathematics

    The rules most definitely are

    It’s just a rule we agreed upon to allow consistent results

    proven rules which are true whether you agree to it or not! 😂

    any good math educator will be clear on this

    Yep

    If you know the PEMDAS convention already, that’s good, since it’s by far the most common today

    No it isn’t.

    But if you don’t yet, don’t worry

    As long as you know the rules then that’s all that matters

    • Septimaeus@infosec.pub
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      3 months ago

      Dear Mr Rules,

      I’m not sure what motivates you to so generously offer your various dyadic tokens of knowledge on this subject without qualification while ignoring my larger point, but will assume in good faith that your thirst for knowledge rivals that of your devotion to The Rules.

      First, a question: what are conventions if not agreed upon rules? Second, here is a history of how we actually came to agree upon the aforementioned rules which you may find interesting:

      https://www.themathdoctors.org/order-of-operations-historical-caveats/

      Happy ruling to you.

      • knowledge on this subject without qualification

        I’m a Maths teacher with a Masters - thanks for asking - how about you?

        while ignoring my larger point

        You mean your invalid point, that I debunked?

        what are conventions if not agreed upon rules?

        Conventions are optional, rules aren’t.

        here is a history of how we actually came to agree upon the aforementioned rules which you may find interesting

        He’s well-known to be wrong about his “history”, and if you read through the comments you’ll find plenty of people telling him that, including references. Cajori wrote the definitive books about the history of Maths (notation). They’re available for free on the Internet Archive - no need to believe some random crank and his blog.