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this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2025
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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This is very clearly incorrect.
Let A = 10 and B = C = D = 1.
Let π = 5
10 - 1 + 1 = 10 - 1 - 1 or 8 = 8
You need to relearn arithmetic.
I was trying to figure out how you came up with this - even given that you're reh learning math - and thought "oh, maybe their native language is read right to left, so 1 + 1 = 2, and 10 - 2 = 8." But then doing that you'd also go "1 - 1 = 0, and 10 - 0 = 0," so I honestly don't know how you're getting there.
And then I thought, "maybe they think subtraction comes first", but then (10 - 1) + 1 is 10, and (10 - 1) - 1 is 8.
I can't think of any consistent rules that would produce this. You'd have to do:
- 10 - (1 + 1), and
- (10 - 1) - 1
I'm really curious about your thought process.
Incidentally, my wife was home schooled except her mother didn't participate, so she never learned anything beyond basic addition and subtraction, and the single digit multiplication table. When she finally went for her GED she was in her 20's, and we spent many, many hours together tutoring.
So, you're getting a lot of negative reactions, but don't let it get you down. Keep up with it; it's valuable to learn.
BTW, my wife eventually graduated Summa Cum Laude in both her Bachelor's and her Master's degrees - non-STEM, so algebra was all she needed, but she fought hard for that 4.0, and she got it.
I am not sure how I mixed that up but for some reason in my head I was thinking “Do Addition then (should read “and”) Subtraction in order from left to right”. This is why it is a shower thought and why I am brushing up on my math. haha
This is the back story of the silliness from another comment. I simply misremembered what to do and did addition before subtraction instead of left to right. I am still not sure exactly why because I literally just read a section on order of operations and my brain did the rest. I am usually not so bad at math, but my brain can be my worst enemy. haha
Ah. So you gave addition a higher precedence than subtraction. That makes sense.
graduated Summa Cum Laude in [...] her Master’s degrees
Graduate programs generally do not do Latin honors...
She graduated her Masters with a 4.0. I didn't know graduate programs didn't award a title, though. She did get extra tassels on her hat, so it was recognized, Latin honors or not.
Edit: her graduate program had an honors society, which was the equivalent of Summa for graduates. That's what the tassels were for. I had to check with her: I didn't myself rise to such lofty heights.
Top xx% may get "with distinction". I held a 4.13 (capped at 4.0). I went on to teach at the institution for a few years after graduating as well. So I've spent a significant amount of time in academia.
But because of the higher standard for grad schools, typically requiring a 3.0+ to stay active (rather than the typical undergrad 2.0), latin honors dont make sense if the whole grad year is basically getting them. So they're not commonly issued.
Are you assuming all addition operations come before all subtraction operations, regardless of order?
Are you trying to tell me that using the order of operations addition is not done before subtraction?
The standard order of operations is
- Parentheses
- Exponentiation
- Multiplication and division
- Addition and subtraction.
The operations on each row are equivalent, and are executed from left to right.
Thanks for being helpful. I am not sure how I mixed that up but for some reason in my head I was thinking "Do Addition then (should read "and") Subtraction in order from left to right". This is why it is a shower thought and why I am brushing up on my math. haha
If it helps to conceptualize, you can always replace subtraction and division with these equivalents without affecting the order:
a - b
= a + -b
= a + (-1*b)
and
a / b
= a * b^-1^
= a * (1/b)