OK, I'm done with this thread. This getting ridiculous. Skilly, you're one of a handful of things, I'm not sure which one.
1) Too proud to simply admit that you're wrong.
2) Someone who simply can't get it no matter how many times it's explained.
3) A troll who's just trying to lure me into a flame war.
The fact that, assuming I'm reading my Control Panel correctly, you JUST NOW down-voted a post of mine in this thread from four frigging months ago suggests troll. You also appear to have randomly down-voted a whole bunch of people in some other thread, also suggesting either a troll or a spiteful, immature person.
Against my better judgment, I'm going to give it one more shot. I know I'm going to regret it.
One, it's doubtful you're going to find an algebra equation in a math book where you solve for x and it looks like this. Normally x is on the right. IF it isn't, you change it so it is.
6+2x10=26
You change it to this.
6+20x=26
Then this.
20x=20
Then you divide by 20, so x is 1, not 0.3. Where did 0.3 come from?
You're right, x is USUALLY (though not always) a variable in algebra. That's why you use a dot for multiplication in algebra instead of x when multiplying. Another one of those rules made before any of us were born. Perhaps "convention" is a better word than "rule" here.
This is all irrelevant though, because it's extremely obvious that in THIS thread, x is used as the multiplication symbol. It's not a variable, so why even bring that up?
if i remember correctly, x is always a variable algebra. you need parentheses to multiply.
You remember incorrectly. You don't need any parentheses to multiply. If you always needed parentheses, no one would have bothered inventing the acronym PEMDAS in the first place. The acronym would be "P" for parentheses.
In sum, whether you're doing arithmetic or writing code, you multiply before you add and if you have two consecutive multiplication or division operations, you go left to right if there are no parentheses. It's completely irrelevant whether these rules make sense to you. There's ONE and only ONE answer to 15 / 3 * 5 and it ain't 1 and it ain't "none of the above" when you change the '*' to an 'x'. They're the rules, period, unless you want to be Humpty Dumpty and don't care whether anyone understands you...
'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.'
'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.'
'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master — that's all.'