How do you calculate 2 + 3 x 7? Is the answer 35 or is the answer 23? To know the correct answer, one must know the correct order of operations with respect to addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, etc.
2 + 3 x 7 = 2 + 21 = 23 is the correct answer to the above question.
How do you calculate (2 + 3) x (7 - 3)? Is the answer 32, 20 or is the answer 14? To know the correct answer, one must know the correct order of operations with respect to addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and with respect to parenthesis.
(2 + 3) x (7 - 3) = 5 x 4 = 20 is the correct answer to the above problem
How would you calculate [3 + 7 - (2 + 3 x 6) +2 x 5 -7 +1]?
In the expression, , the expression (2 + 3 x 6) is the inner most parenthesis and must be calculated first. 2 + 3 x 6 = 2 + 18 = 20.
The expression is now modified to . The next parenthesis to be calculated is 7 - 20 + 2 x 5 = 7 - 20 + 10 = - 13 + 10 = - 3.
The expression is now reduced to [3 + {-3} - 7 + 1] = 0 - 7 + 1 = - 6.
How would you calculate .
= Both
parenthesis have been simplified. Now perform the multiplication to
yield
. The last thing to
do is the addition.
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Author: Nancy Marcus