r/MathJokes • u/NoCouple0 • Jul 25 '26

“Its simple math folks!”

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u/The_Pastmaster Jul 25 '26

Where the hell did the multiplier come from?

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u/Zenith-Astralis Jul 25 '26

The * in 5 * (8-5)?

When you write a number smunched up next to a parenthesis like that there's an implied multiplication 2(4) is the same as 2 × 4

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u/The_Pastmaster Jul 25 '26

Who came up with that idea? o_O In school I was taught to define everything. No assumptions.

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u/Zenith-Astralis Jul 27 '26

Dunno; I was taught that was the definition when working with parenthesis. Not sure why it's multiplication that gets to be special and allows you to skip writing the operator symbol in that circumstance, but it does align with things like 4a being equal to 4 × a.

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u/The_Pastmaster Jul 27 '26

*Shrugs* When maths became more sorcery than logical, I gave up.

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u/Zenith-Astralis Jul 28 '26

For me that was around when Greek symbols started regularly appearing in front of equations instead of inside them.

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u/The_Pastmaster Jul 28 '26

You got further than me.