It is interesting that such logic has the added in such calculations. Illustrates the variety of math, and how just the saying of it can lead to different responses. Much like language does in society. Maybe we need to add parens to anything Hillary puts out?

And you seem to have claims to the everyone is in the we-cannot-change-system and will all hang around and drown if the seas rise. There seems to be an inability to deal with change, i.e., with time related actions. People get flooded out over and over but act as though the last time was really the last time it will happen and then when it happens again they adjust their beliefs in the wrong direction to a belief that that can't ever happen again. I cannot believe that when those living now are all dead that their offspring will not adjust their lives to any large changes in the local weather or as some want to call it climate change. Systems are just a way to make very complicated activities fit into lazy minds. Concepts work the same way in minds which just see them as being words without expanding them to see to what they refer in objective reality. 'System' is best left to engineering or physical descriptions and is too dangerous for use in the lay mind.

Young people don't need basic math skills, as long as they can write cursive.
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Oh, wait . . . :-)

I just keyed this problem into an HP 10B Business calculator. As expected with out parens the calculator evaluated the expression left to right subtracting first followed by division then the addition. Result? 19 as expected. Absent parens algebraic calculators tend to evaluate left to right through the expression PEMDAS requires parens to force these machines to alter order of operation . My mental answer was also 19, I went to the calculator after seeing your different answer....not exactly wrong, definitely different. BTW I taught PMDAS as part of beginning electronics for 30 years. Also required RPN calculators because of the better system only requiring working with two operands unless you (or the problem) required a delay. It is a shame that the math teachers couldn't get outside their math notation long enough to master a superior system. Even HP gave up and allowed the next generation to build algebraic machines.

In Common Core, they're correct if you feel really good about it. If someone tells you either answer is wrong, call them "mathists" and demand to be allowed to go to your safe place.

Numbers Are Hard!

That is very good. I am sure you would get credit for either answer as well!

Oh, I know exactly what you mean. I work in a factory for Intel, where we do the final phase of chip making. I have many "engineers" who have issues with basics. I also have some who are veritable geniuses, but also cannot tie their shoes, so they wear slip ons. To each their own, but I have found a degree smart does not make.

Back in the Pleistocene Era when I was a COBOL programmer, I encountered frequent math errors in programs that did not use parentheses. These days the order of operations can vary among spreadsheets, calculators and programming languages. The presence of chained exponents (such as 2^3^4) and unary operators such as "!" can add further ambiguity and confusion. Using parentheses, especially when dealing with electronic media, is always a good idea.

Yes, you are right, and my hasty declaration was less than charitable. Had just finished reading the news, was very depressed as usual, and meant it humorously.

After finishing five years of engineering school, we all said: "Just think: five years ago I couldn't even spel enginer, and now I are one."

I tried using Common Core and came up with with either "B" or "The Civil War." I guess both must be correct.

I consider myself a "good engineer", I have fixed some very icky problems, yet this defeated me. I would say that we should avaid getting to in depth with labels (not trying to sound leeftist here, please), but I have seen some engineers who could engineer a nuclear reactor to work, yet can't tie their shoes. Maybe the term savant applies?

Exactly, and the good point is the difference between system and individual units. System does imply central control, and system also implies an agenda. A single unit with a mission should have the mission (or service) as it's "agenda" and would focus much better on it. Maybe an argument for charter schools?

Well, there you go, I am too old and frail to know the difference, it's all math to me..Not specific..

Good catch.

I don't see these agendas and biases, at least in my interactions with a little corner of it. My problem is considering it a "system". Providing goods and services to people should just be a market of people offering and other people choosing to buy or not buy. A "system" implies central control. It's a back-door way of saying it. If we answer the question, "Is this system working?" IMHO by accepting that framing we're accepting centralized control.

I've had an amazingly positive experience with the public school in my area. If it weren't a system, I'd keep paying them as long as they do what I want. You and I wouldn't need to discuss which school does a better job , any more than we need to discuss which mobile data carrier is best. We'd just pick what works and buy it. People wanting it to be a "system" really annoys me. It seems like they either want to abdicate their own choice, maybe b/c they feel life has too many choices, or they want to be the one running the system, telling everyone else what to do.

Sorry to disappoint, but there is no algebra in this. It is basic 2nd and 3rd grade arithmetic. Fractions are the toughest part of it. Algebra requires substituting values for variables, and there are no variables in this question. It really can't even be considered an equation, just a math question.
But yes, our education system is going down the toilet.

pesky order of operations :)

I got it wrong. Hated algebra in high school, avoided related subjects at little ole Troy State and never had any use for it later. What I can do is shoot straight and put handcuffs on people.
I have a younger brother who was a whiz at algebra, graduated magna cum laude from the University of Alabama and is now a retired Lockheed engineer and has more money than I do.
A lot more money.
Looks like our Commander-Of-(Other-Assorted)-Grief failed to in his own words to Joe the Plumber "spread the wealth around."
I still marvel over how the media went way out of their way to pick on an unlicensed plumber due to what Candidate Obama said to that man.
See? See how I steered away from the subject at hand?
By the way, my moneybags little brother has for over two decades bought five tickets per home game so up to four people can tailgate with him and see the game for free.
Moocher me quit going two years ago due to health problems.
Do you want to know what they are? La, la, la!

Not even algebra. No abstraction necessary.

That's just downright frightening. Of course it's not like our current education system actually wants people to get the correct answers. With the introduction of Common Core, the process of getting the answer is more important than getting the correct answer, as if the deductive reasoning is more important than the validity of the answer!

It's no wonder we have so many voters in this country who vote Democrat!

Any good engineer who was educated before the idiots took over would simply define the order by the use of parentheses thereby allowing one to zip through the process without have to remember rules. Always seek clarity in lieu of obfuscation.

I guess I did it the old fashioned way, with a pencil and paper. I could therefore express it any way my mind could grasp.
"Math: I rely on my computer or calculator.
Spelling: I rely on my spell-check."
When do you rely on your brain?
Do you even have a brain?
Shouldn't you be able do simple stuff in your head? When I was in school during the Stone Age, we learned addition, subtraction, multiplication and division by rote. No consulting a device needed. Now, everything seems to be through the use of a device. Are you saving your brains for some other more esoteric function?

Sad. Very sad. Then again, in my test-prep teaching days, I found I had to review the precedence of mathematical operators and brackets. Meaning my trainers didn't expect our students to come in knowing any of this.

Indeed, I think they were trying to point out that less and less young people are getting basic math skills, and so come up with a variety of answers. I plead old age and lack of need for it...but then, my math skills are rarely needed beyond 20% off= :)