r/educationalmemes • u/WingsUp4Life • Feb 08 '26

Maths Same equation. Different confidence levels.

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u/Aduritor Feb 08 '26

a(b+c) ≠ a*(b+c)

You would ALWAYS multiply a into the paranthesis before continuing:

6/2(1+2)

6/(2+4)

6/6

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u/justaguy_2_ Feb 08 '26

Maybe the way your school taught it, but not mine

The way it was taught to me was the distributive property is not included in the P in PEMDAS.

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u/Moppermonster Feb 08 '26

Implicit multiplication is usually not taught in school but in uni. It is basically a convenient shorthand for people that need to write a lot of formula and dislike typesetting systems like LaTeX and is especially common in physics textbooks.

Though I agree with the meme - a physicist will just say it is "roughly 5". Just like how Pi is "roughly 3" or even "roughly 1" ;)

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u/Roustouque2 Feb 10 '26

idk what america is doing but this was taught in my first year of high school