ORDER OF OPERATIONS: Problem 3

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

Problem 3: Calculate .

Answer: The answer is .

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_inline42 = tex2html_wrap_inline20 .

Comment:

A common wrong answer is

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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Author: Nancy Marcus