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The other day, a student of mine came up to me with a problem. She told me that she was working the following arithmetic problem on her calculator that she won at the homedays festival and the answer it gave her was: 13. She insisted that the calculator was wrong and the answer should be 25. I asked her, "How many times did you work out that problem with the calculator?" She replied, "Five times!" At that point, I asked her, "What was the problem that you entered on the calculator?" She replied, "Mr. Shaw, the problem was 4 + 3 x 4 - 3." I said to her, "What answer was the calculator giving you?" She answered, "13! I already told you that!" Next, I gave her my calculator that was given to me for free because I purchased some new furniture. She did the exact problem on my calculator and the answer came out to be 25. She did it over and over again and kept getting 25. She replied, "That's the answer I wanted, but why was the other calculator giving me 13?" I said, "I said to her, "Both calculators are right!" She exclaimed frustrated and confused, "Mr. Shaw, what is going on? How can a calculator be correct with two different answers?" |
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