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If they didnt catch this in all of their highschool life, please do tell me how they went trough any of it? Also, by your logic, any answers ARE correct, because you neednt to follow the etablished rules -> Insane Troll logic. (Not calling you a Troll, of course)

Maybe they didn't go to high school? High school completion rates in the US alone is only 80%.

Not to mention, its plenty common to forget things you learned if you don't use them. As a non-mathematician, I virtually never use any of my high school, or even middle school, mathematics on even an annual basis. Lack of use, along with a personal lack of aptitude, and I've forgotten tons of it by now.

I think this is also a strong case of group pressure: if quite a few people say 2, you're pretty likely to say 2 as well, even if you're pretty sure they're wrong.

The Asch Experiment comes to mind.

When I say they are correct, what I meant was they "added and subtracted and multiplied numbers and came out to a correct answer by the order they followed". Obviously that order was wrong, but order of operations is an arbitrary rule, rather than an intuitive one, and so I don't have a ton of respect for it as a measure of intelligence.

Yes, that i can relate to... but basic addition, substraction, division and multiplication is something you do daily. Hell, purcasing things requires you to do this.

Speaking of which, this gives me a great example why the order isnt as arbitary as you might think: Grab 1 bag of chips (2$), 4 Bottles of Coke (1$ Each), have a rebate of 3$. Results in 2+1x4-3. Not so uninutive now, right?

You aint buying 4 bags of chips after all, yeah?

As someone who was terrible at math, I promise you that applied maths (purchasing) and textbook math (operations) are not equally simple to understand. Try and explain to someone why multiplications come first without using a real life example, for instance.

Its faster to compute. Personally i multiply whenever applicable when im shopping.

Basic addition and subtraction, I learned in 1st grade. Multiplication and division, through 3rd and 4th. But I wasn't taught order of operations until High School. I wouldn't consider that basic.

Purchasing items isn't quite the same, as you can't have negatives. I'm pretty sure the mathematicians who established these rules weren't doing it to prevent people from cheesing their rebates!

Derp, didnt read your comment correctly... why do you want me to explain it without irl examples if the reason for doing it this way comes exactly from there. x_x But okay, ill try to come up with an example, gimme a bit.

I'd be more interested to see a history of who decided the order of operations and why. But I doubt its a IRL reasoning for it.

Because you are implying it's logical that multiplications come first in textbook math because they do so in real life, and I'm saying that such a link is not that straightforward.

Capital management: You have various costs (rent, food for 4 people), and incomes (work). (as examples) Same thing basically, but you can have negatives.

it's -17

Welp, some digging later : http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/52582.html

It seems the ruling came about pretty much naturally, manmade, but without much disagreement. My theory for that is that it just simply doesnt make sense or work with property. Where would that excess property come from if you add before you multiply?

That said, i cant come up with any abstract reasoning why we muliply first. Lets do it religiously: God said so because i said so. (Dont hurt me pls, religious people. Its jokingly meant.)