Rule 21: Order of Operations

Expressions in parenthesis are treated as one number and must be calculate first.

Example: Calculate tex2html_wrap_inline21 .

Answer: The answer is 16.

Solution:
Since there parenthesis in the problem. Work from left to right. The parenthesis tex2html_wrap_inline23 contains multiplication and addition. Complete the multiplication first. tex2html_wrap_inline25 can be modified to tex2html_wrap_inline27 .

The problem tex2html_wrap_inline21 can now be written tex2html_wrap_inline31 .

The remaining parenthesis tex2html_wrap_inline33 contains multiplication and addition. Complete the multiplication first. tex2html_wrap_inline35 can be modified to tex2html_wrap_inline37 .

The problem tex2html_wrap_inline21 can now be written as tex2html_wrap_inline41 which in turn can be simplified to tex2html_wrap_inline43 .

If you would like to review more examples, click on the word Example.

Work the following problems and click on Answer to check your results.

Problem 1: Calculate tex2html_wrap_inline45.
Answer

Problem 2: Calculate tex2html_wrap_inline47.
Answer

Problem 3: Calculate tex2html_wrap_inline49.
Answer

[Identification] [Factoring Integers] [Reducing Fractions] [Multiplication]
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[Order of Operation]

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