[13:03] <mgariepy> good morning everyone
[14:26] <highvoltage> good morning
[14:27] <stgraber> morning
[20:51] <martsbradley> Hi folks,
[20:52] <martsbradley> I've a bit of software I wrote for the mathematical order of operations, for example to illustrate that 1+2*3=7 rather than 9.
[20:53] <martsbradley> A video of its available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc9cu-ekFrg
[20:53] <martsbradley> Is it worth packaging it and putting it into ubuntu?  I've got all the source code, its written in wx widgets and is all my own code.
[20:53] <martsbradley> ?
[20:54] <highvoltage> hi martsbradley
[20:54] <martsbradley> Hi Highvoltage
[20:54] <highvoltage> it looks like it could be useful to someone, so why not :)
[20:55] <alkisg> martsbradley: just an idea, if you could make it show infix/postfix etc notations with that tree, I'm sure it would be useful to some CS students
[20:55] <highvoltage> martsbradley: what does it do with http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/48293/ ? :)
[20:57] <martsbradley> I'll boot up my other computer and try it out.
[20:58] <highvoltage> martsbradley: but yes, I think it would be nice, and if it's stable and not otherwise troublesome we'd probably include it in edubuntu too.
[21:02] <martsbradley> 288 it gives
[21:02] <martsbradley> It had a little problem with the 2(9, it did not recognise it as a multiply so had to insert the * between the 2 and the opening bracket
[21:04] <martsbradley> Is 288 the expected answer, I'm sure it is but I'm no math teacher.
[21:04] <highvoltage> ah see the way I was taught in school "48 / 2(9+3)" and "48 / 2 * (9+3)" would give different answers. but I guess that's one of the sucky things about differences in math across different regions that that post highlights
[21:04] <martsbradley> I was taught that the 2(9+3) means add 9 & 3 then multiply by 2, even though the multiply operator was omitted.
[21:05] <highvoltage> martsbradley: yep, same here.
[21:05] <highvoltage> and if you do that then you get to the answer "2"
[21:06] <martsbradley> I was taught by the BODMAS expression, brackets order division multiply add subtract it stands for, therefore the brackets come first, so 9+3 =12
[21:07] <martsbradley> Then 48 /2
[21:07] <martsbradley> 24 * 12 must be 288
[21:07] <highvoltage> oopes, I meant 24 instead of 2
[21:07] <highvoltage> (man that chapaign we had at work went straight to my head)
[21:07] <martsbradley> Lucky u.
[21:08] <martsbradley> So we agree 288 is correct answer.
[21:08] <highvoltage> well...
[21:08] <highvoltage> ...
[21:08] <highvoltage> that's debatable depending on how you were taught
[21:08] <highvoltage> but I think it's the right answer for your software to give
[21:09] <martsbradley> I think that Ireland and America is taught in same way, not sure about Europe + rest of world.
[21:09] <highvoltage> oh no, I was right first time, I would end up with 2 as the answer
[21:09] <highvoltage> (Implied multiplication)
[21:09] <highvoltage> 48 ÷ 2(9+3)=
[21:09] <highvoltage> 48 ÷ 2(12)=
[21:09] <highvoltage> 48 ÷ 24=
[21:09] <highvoltage> 2
[21:10] <martsbradley> I'll look at that page to see what they came up with
[21:10] <highvoltage> yeah I'm no mathemetician either. but I just think it would be nice if your software could be aware of these kind of things. just as a wish list :)
[21:11] <martsbradley> Yea they have two different answers also, not good.  I thought mathematics was the 'universal language'
[21:12] <highvoltage> heh, yeah it has some similar problems as natural languages though. in some areas other conventions were formed so some expressions mean different things
[21:13] <highvoltage> that's why different calculators also give different answers for the same equation
[21:14] <martsbradley> ok thanks for the help, bye.
[21:14] <highvoltage> bye!