ORDER OF OPERATIONS: Problem 3

Rule 21:
Expressions in parenthesis are treated as one number and must be calculate first.

Problem 3: Calculate tex2html_wrap_inline32 .

Answer: The answer is tex2html_wrap_inline34 .

Solution:
Since there parenthesis in the problem. Work from left to right. Since these parenthesis are side by side, you can work on them at the same time. The steps are as follows:

tex2html_wrap_inline36 = tex2html_wrap_inline38 tex2html_wrap_inline38 = tex2html_wrap_inline42 tex2html_wrap_inline42 = tex2html_wrap_inline20 .

Comment:
A common wrong answer is tex2html_wrap_inline48 because at the very end of the problem, students are so happy that they forget and add the 20 and the 5 before they multiply the fraction by 20.

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