Why a traditional calculator may give you a completely different answer than a cellphone
Does 50+50x2 = 150 or 200? It depends who you ask.
Some people see math and automatically turn off their brains while others can't wait to figure out the problem presented. Math can be anxiety producing for some people but this random discovery of two calculators coming up with different answers to the same problem have people intrigued.
Spellbinding Odyssey shared a short video on X showing someone using a regular Casio calculator you can pick up at any store and the calculator that comes standard on a cellphone. The person in the video enters a simple equation on the cellphone calculator, 50+50x2. Instantaneously, the cellphone calculator displays the answer as 150. It doesn't take a mathematician to second guess that answer though many people might immediately second guess their own assumption that the answer given is incorrect.
On the traditional calculator, the same exact simple equation is entered in the same order, 50+50x2. But there's something weird that happens. The traditional calculator comes up with a completely different answer than the other calculator. This time the answer to the equation is 200, but how?
People in the comments of the post were quick to point out what was happening because math doesn't make everyone cry. There are quite a few people that enjoy the challenge and were able to explain why the phone was coming up 50 short of the expected. It turns out to be something really simple. Remember in late elementary school when math teachers excitedly taught the order of operations? That's what's a play here.
If you're one of the people that immediately walks away at the sight of math equations so your memory is a little fuzzy on that rule. Many people learned the acronym, "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally," where the beginning of each letter stands for the order in which you complete a simple mathematic equation. Parenthesis, exponent, multiplication, division, addition and subtraction.
In the case of the two calculators, one is using the order of operations and the other is not, commenters point out.
Can you explain this 🤔 pic.twitter.com/rYX6twPjOL
— Spellbinding Odyssey (@SpellOdyssey) April 2, 2024
"The iPhone Calculator is applying the order of operations (PEMDAS/BODMAS), which means it calculates multiplication and division before addition and subtraction. So, the operation it performs is "50 + (50 × 2)", resulting in 150. The Casio should too but some models and modes affect how it calculates. To avoid this issue, use parentheses," someone writes.
"The phone followed order of operations while the calculator made its calculations one at a time," another person points out.
Other people were a bit peeved that the cellphone calculator would be programmed to automatically assume a person was inputting equations in everyday life.
"A calculator's job is not to solve equations unless its a graphing calculator. A person trained to use a calculator will unknowingly receive the wrong answer when entering the equation "properly," a commenter protests.
"No telling how many ledgers, documents, etc are wrong," someone says.
"The iPhone seems to be less efficient than the old calculator. You have to press the = button after adding 50 + 50. If you don’t, the iPhone will assume like 50 + (50 x 2)," another writes.
You learn something new every day. If you're doing simple multistep math on your phone be sure you're pressing the equal sign after each step or you could wind up severely miscalculating unwittingly.
Men try to read the most disturbing comments women get online back to them.
If you wouldn't say it to their faces, don't type it.
This isn’t comfortable to talk about.
Trigger warning for discussion of sexual assault and violence.
A recent video by Just Not Sports took two prominent female sportswriters and had regular guys* read the awful abuse they receive online aloud.
Sportswriters Sarah Spain and Julie DiCaro sat by as men read some of the most vile tweets they receive on a daily basis. See how long you can last watching it.
*(Note: The men reading them did not write these comments; they're just being helpful volunteers to prove a point.)
It starts out kind of jokey but eventually devolves into messages like this:
Awful.
All images and GIFs from Just Not Sports/YouTube.
These types of messages come in response to one thing: The women were doing their jobs.
Those wishes that DiCaro would die by hockey stick and get raped? Those were the result of her simply reporting on the National Hockey League's most disturbing ordeal: the Patrick Kane rape case, in which one of the league's top players was accused of rape.
DiCaro wasn't writing opinion pieces. She was simply reporting things like what the police said, statements from lawyers, and just general everyday work reporters do. In response, she received a deluge of death threats. Her male colleagues didn't receive nearly the same amount of abuse.
It got to the point where she and her employer thought it best to stay home for a day or two for her own physical safety.
The men in the video seemed absolutely shocked that real live human beings would attack someone simply for doing their jobs.
Not saying it.
All images and GIFs from Just Not Sports/YouTube.
Most found themselves speechless or, at very least, struggling to read the words being presented.
All images and GIFs from Just Not Sports/YouTube.
Think this is all just anecdotal? There's evidence to the contrary.
The Guardian did a study to find out how bad this problem really is.
They did a study of over 70 million comments that have been posted on their site since 2006. They counted how many comments that violated their comment policy were blocked.
The stats were staggering.
From their comprehensive and disturbing article:
If you can’t say it to their face... don’t type it.
All images and GIFs from Just Not Sports/YouTube.
So what can people do about this kind of harassment once they know it exists?
There are no easy answers. But the more people who know this behavior exists, the more people there will be to tell others it's not OK to talk to anyone like that.
Watch the whole video below:
.This article originally appeared on 04.27.16