Wierd Division

[Fatboy]

what the answer to 1/(5-3)/(6-3)-1 ????

1
-------
(5-3) -1 =????
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(6-3)

[barmy]

Answer to 1/(5-3)/(6-3)-1 is -5/6 or 0.833333

Answer to the other question is 1/3 or 0.33333 as the formulae are not the same.

Would be written as 1/(5-3)-1/(6-3)

[mohill]

As the operations are written in the first line, I read it to mean: 1 divided by (5 - 3) divided by (6 - 3) and then minus 1.

1 divided by (5 - 3) = 1 divided by 2 = 1/2

1/2 divided by (6 - 3) = 1/2 divided by 3 = 1/6

1/6 - 1 = -5/6

But if the original problem was written to intend (5 - 3) divided by (6 - 3) to be done first (as it could well have been) then we have :

(5 - 3) divided by (6 - 3) = 2 divided by 3 = 2/3

Then 1 divided by 2/3 = 3/2

3/2 - 1 = 1/2

The solution is one or other of these.

[Fatboy]

if you dont want the answer DO NOT read on.

This was a problem that some one gave me at work, they are supposed to be the same problem but didnt quite work out that way. im not very good at maths so i got the answer as 0.5 as most of you probably did.

the actual answer was -0.83333333, the (5-3)/(6-3) = 2/3 = 0.6666666667 then you do 1/0.66666667 then minus the 1. which equals -0.83333333.