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I know that this sounds dumb (I'm kind of math ignorant), but for past 30 years of my life I was more than sure that there is only one solution to this equation:

$2 + 2 * 2 = 6$

Until I was hit with "welcome screen" in Mobi Calculator asking me (?)... eee... what kind of math do I want to use in it:

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and suggesting (?) that... in certain situations $2 + 2 * 2 = 8$ is true.

What is WOP or what am I missing here?

trejder
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    Well there are two interpretation of $2 + 2 \times 2$. One is $2 + (2 \times 2)$, the other one is $(2 + 2) \times 2$. Usually, it is interpreted as the first case since multiplication and division takes precedence over addition and subtraction. I think the calculator is asking you if you want to have the normal precedence rule or without it (so we will do the arithmetic operation from left to right). – Alex Vong Dec 27 '17 at 19:29
  • Personally, I like to use posfix calculator (see explanation) because you don't to need type those parenthesis. – Alex Vong Dec 27 '17 at 19:39

3 Answers3

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WOP is likely WithOutPriority, i.e. calculate all operations at the same priority, left-to-right: $2+2(=4)\times 2(=8)$.

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I think it can means "without operations priority", doing operations one by one from left to right.

Balloon
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I can confidently say that $2 + 2 * 2 = 6$ is the correct solution. I think that the calculator has an option for those that do not want to use parenthesis, in which case it will do operations left to right.

Madhav Nakar
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