Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Order of Operations

The order of operations is a collection of rules that reflect conventions about which operations to perform first in order to evaluate a given mathematical expression.

The ordering says that anything inside a parenthetical is simplified first; then exponents are applied; then multiplication and division are applied (going from left to right), and finally addition and subtraction are applied (again, going from left to right).

A common technique for remembering the order of operations is the acronym "PEMDAS", which has been turned into the mnemonic phrase "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally". This phrase stands for, and helps one remember the order of:

Parentheses,
Exponents,
Multiplication and Division
Addition and Subtraction

Working Through Problems
Khan: Order of operations examples: exponents