If we’re supposed to be able to understand math as easily as a language, we should be able to read it from left to right like a language.
Yes, I know there’s lots other languages that go right to left or top to bottom, but the point is you don’t have to go jumping around the page or sentence figuring out which word should be read first based on which characters it contains.
We put the first word first, then the second word second, etc.
Why can’t we just write equations in the order they were meant to be solved?
we can if we want, its called Polish notation
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_notation
instead of x + y we write + x y
then 2 + 3 * (3 + 7) + 6 becomes + 2 + * 3 + 3 7 6
no order of operations to remember, but good luck parsing it.
Morally wrong? What does morality have to do with any of this?
This is a matter of conventions. Which way we do it doesn’t actually matter that much as long as we all agree on a way. Maybe you think PEMDAS is counterintuitive, maybe others disagree. That doesn’t make it morally wrong.
Some of you have never read a Choose Your Own Adventure book and it shows.
Reverse Polish Notation works almost like you describe. You put the operands first, then the operation. For example:
- 3 + 4 --> 3 4 +
- 3 • (5 + 2) --> 5 2 + 3 •
Probably the reason why we are not using it is because most tools today use algebraic notation, and it would be a lot of effort to switch
Is it just me or people actually writing and using math daily never complain about this stuff? Only “it’s been a while I forgot the rules” crowd.
