Biggest science or math pet peeve

  • Thread starter Thread starter Greg Bernhardt
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The discussion centers on frustrations with the order of operations, specifically BODMAS and PEMDAS, which many believe lead to ambiguity in mathematical expressions. A notable example highlighted is a viral math problem where only 26% of respondents provided the correct answer, illustrating widespread confusion. Participants argue that teaching these rules detracts from understanding real mathematics and that the use of brackets should be emphasized to eliminate ambiguity. Additionally, there is criticism of the separation between pure and applied mathematics in education, which some feel fosters unnecessary competition. Overall, the consensus is that clarity in mathematical notation is crucial for effective learning and communication.
  • #241
My biggest math pet peeve is when people try to explain complicated math in plain text. It ends up as a completely unreadable set of nested parenthesis. I prefer people use a whiteboard and take a picture (most forums don't have advanced maths symbols like this one does)

This is not specific to mathematics with numbers, any logical language should have structure. I hate seeing MySQL queries all on one line too.
 
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  • #242
My pet peeve is the lack of units and dimensional analysis in math. Similarly, I would prefer that Physics would use radians more often than degrees.

I think I just revived this thread.
 

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