Kahuna's Maths Test

[Kahuna]

Only 1 simple question.Do it in your head and post the first answer you come up with.

Q1. 2+3X4= ?

Too easy? I am betting some or all get it wrong.

[Hondo]

Either 20 or 14 depends how you order the formula

Using BODMAS principle then its 14

Following the order of the equation its 20

I think the easy mistake is 24 which I actually typed here

[Pseudo]

Either 20 or 14 depends how you order the formula

Or 24 or 16 if the numbers are expressed as octal ordinates

[GWW]

14

[Booney]

14

[Mr66]

The way I was taught, 14

[JAS]

As nothing appears in brackets I was taught to follow step-by-step from left to right so for me it's 20

Unless the use of an x in uppercase rather than lower is somehow significant.

Regards
JAS

[Dissident]

14

Brackets aren't an issue...

BODMAS.. Brackets first, division, multiplication, addition etc...

[Footy Chick]

EEEEEEEKKKKKK! MATHS!!!

** FC darts off in the opposite direction and jumps through a closed window***


This is coming from a would-be teacher who failed fundamentals of Primary School Mathematics twice....

[locky801]

14 for me as well but do you count the 1 as for Q1 ( )

[Hondo]

If you type it into Excel as 2+3*4 it comes up as 14

[Lunchcutter]

14

[Kahuna]

OK, time to call a halt to the winner of the Lamest Quiz Award. I will admit to being surprised at the number of people who got it correct (the answer is 14) but I think that may be partly due to the fact that people would be looking for the "ambush" answer rather than going with their initial instinct and partly due to the question being written rather than verbal,also I should have asked for the answer only without people stating reasons as to how they arrived at their answer.
A bit of background for this. Saturday night we were on the turps and mobile phones came up in conversation and my mate declared them to be crap technology. When asked why, he said that even the calculators in them were crap. He is a maths lecturer and I guess things like that are important to them and when pressed on the subject he asked us "What is two plus three times four?". To a man we answered "20". He asked that we enter the same into our phone calculators which all gave the answer as 20. He then produced a scientific calculator,answer 14. I suppose at this point the ancient memories of BODMAS kicked in and the light went on.
The point of this,if there is one, is how can devices we may use so routinely be so fundamentally flawed? Not necessarily just mobiles as the missus work calculator gave the wrong answer too. I wonder what effect it may have in the real world.

[bulldogproud]

Get rid of mobile phones, calculators etc and rely on the human brain!!
I would shoot any of my students who gave an answer other than 14!!

[RustyCage]

Get rid of mobile phones, calculators etc and rely on the human brain!!
I would shoot any of my students who gave an answer other than 14!!

When I was in primary school (13 years ago) calculators were banned during normal maths lessons. It that the case in your school? Will be in my classroom when I get one.

[bulldogproud]

Not banned, but I certainly would not allow students to use calculators for simple maths calculations.
Cheers