• I fully agree that if it comes down to “left to right”

    It never does

    But I’ve just shown why that “rule” is a common part

    No you didn’t. You showed you didn’t understand the rules. Doing addition first for 10-1+1 is 10+1-1, not 10-(1+1). It literally means add all positive numbers together first, which are +10 and +1, as per Maths textbooks…

    Note in the above simplification of the coefficients we have 6-11+5-7+2=6+5+2-11-7=13-18=-5, and not, as you claim 6-(11+5)-(7+2)=6-16-9=-19

    because it is so weird and quite esoteric

    It’s a convention, not a rule, and as such can be completely ignored by those who understand the rules. See literal textbook example

    • HereIAm@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      18 hours ago

      I know it’s not a rule, hence why I put it in quotation marks. I noted in another comment that, yes, the proper way is to group it as 1+(-2)+3 and you can do it in any order. What I meant with ““rule”” is the meme questions pray on people not understanding/remembering what the actual rules are or why “left to right” conventions exist.

      • 💡𝚂𝗆𝖺𝗋𝗍𝗆𝖺𝗇 𝙰𝗉𝗉𝗌📱@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        5 hours ago

        the proper way is to group it as 1+(-2)+3

        No it isn’t.

        you can do it in any order

        You can do it in any order anyway

        left to right 1-2+3=-1+3=2

        addition first 1+3-2=4-2=2

        subtraction first -2+1+3=-1+3=2

        right to left 3-2+1=1+1=2

        What I meant with ““rule”” is the meme questions pray on people not understanding/remembering what the actual rules are

        And you showed that you were one of them. Every answer you got other than 4 was wrong, because you didn’t understand the rules. spoiler alert: doing it in different orders never means add brackets to it. Addition first for 10-1+1 is 10+1-1, not 10-(1+1). See previous textbook example

        why “left to right” conventions exist

        They exist because people like you make mistakes when you try to do it in a different order. Either learn how the rules work or stop spreading disinformation. Well, you should stop spreading disinformation regardless.