This is so easy to get right...or wrong...

[Oxo]

What's the posh term for punnet or chips then? An overseas guy asked me to explain "dinner time" to him and how it differed from lunch. He was confused when I explained that if you had "dinner" in the evening rather than at dinner time it became "tea"

High tea, that would really have got him going.

 

[swee'pea99]

What's the posh term for punnet or chips then? An overseas guy asked me to explain "dinner time" to him and how it differed from lunch. He was confused when I explained that if you had "dinner" in the evening rather than at dinner time it became "tea"

Dinner is not tea, whenever it is taken. It is dinner. Tea is tea. And lunch, for that matter, is lunch. Do try not to confuse overseas guys. They find our ways baffling enough as it is.

 

[srw]

I had never heard of BODMAS until last night. Does that explain my D grade?

I don't remember hearing about BODMAS until well after I'd graduated. By then (actually well before then) I'd learned that subtraction is just addition of negative numbers, multiplication is just repeated addition, division is just multiplication by the reciprocal and raising to a power is just repeated multiplication.

Again - abstraction. It's a better thing to teach than blind application of a rule that doesn't even work.

 

[Profpointy]

I don't remember hearing about BODMAS until well after I'd graduated. By then (actually well before then) I'd learned that subtraction is just addition of negative numbers, multiplication is just repeated addition, division is just multiplication by the reciprocal and raising to a power is just repeated multiplication.

Again - abstraction. It's a better thing to teach than blind application of a rule that doesn't even work.

So without the rule that you do multiplications before additions you'll get the wrong answer. You can't get the rule simply by abstracting; the rule is just what's been agreed.

 

[nickyboy]

What's the posh term for punnet or chips then? An overseas guy asked me to explain "dinner time" to him and how it differed from lunch. He was confused when I explained that if you had "dinner" in the evening rather than at dinner time it became "tea"

Where I come from, your punnets are for strawberries, grapes and other soft fruits. Chips, are served in bags (old skool), cones and I would call the thing you get Maccy D fries in a carton or, being generic, a container.

Punnet sounds overly posh

 

[User482]

Dinner is not tea, whenever it is taken. It is dinner. Tea is tea. And lunch, for that matter, is lunch. Do try not to confuse overseas guys. They find our ways baffling enough as it is.

I strongly suspect that most of your fellow Boltonians would disagree with you.

 

[srw]

So without the rule that you do multiplications before additions you'll get the wrong answer. You can't get the rule simply by abstracting; the rule is just what's been agreed.

One of the abstract axioms of field algebra is that multiplication is distributive over addition. So yes, that's just abstraction too.

 

[User482]

One of the abstract axioms of field algebra is that multiplication is distributive over addition. So yes, that's just abstraction too.

I was typing the same thing just as you posted...

 

[Profpointy]

One of the abstract axioms of field algebra is that multiplication is distributive over addition. So yes, that's just abstraction too.

so why is it an "abstraction" rather than merely a rule?

genuine question - maybe "abstraction" has a more technical meaning in esoteric algebra. I was more of an analysis man back in the day.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

Who knew that people gave such a toss* about cartoon drawings of fast food and some symbols?

*I got it right, just in case anyone has forgotten.

 

[srw]

so why is it an "abstraction" rather than merely a rule?

genuine question - maybe "abstraction" has a more technical meaning in esoteric algebra. I was more of an analysis man back in the day.

I mean that the concept of a field (an algebra with two operations corresponding to multiplication and addition in arithmetic) is an abstraction of arithmetic.

And I suppose if you know that multiplication is repeated addition it doesn't make sense to do the addition first.

 

[srw]

Who knew that people gave such a toss* about cartoon drawings of fast food and some symbols?

*I got it right, just in case anyone has forgotten.

I prefer a cartoon drawing of slow food.

Mmmmmm.... venison.

 

[Profpointy]

I mean that the concept of a field (an algebra with two operations corresponding to multiplication and addition in arithmetic) is an abstraction of arithmetic.

And I suppose if you know that multiplication is repeated addition it doesn't make sense to do the addition first.

I like the last bit. It's a better explanation than my usual justifiaction for Bodmas "because it's the rule". It makes no sense otherwise.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

I prefer a cartoon drawing of slow food.

Mmmmmm.... venison.

I'd stab your eyes oot wi my antlers

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

I ate the burger and ended up with 20. Anybody want my drink?