Rule 22: Order of Operations

If parentheses are enclosed in other parentheses, work from the inside out.

Example: Calculate tex2html_wrap_inline26 .

Answer: The answer is 33.

Solution:
There are parentheses in this problem which must be removed. Since there are "nested" parentheses, simplify the inner most parentheses first. The parentheses tex2html_wrap_inline28 contain multiplication and addition. Complete the multiplication first. tex2html_wrap_inline30 can be modified to tex2html_wrap_inline32 .

The problem tex2html_wrap_inline26 can now be written as tex2html_wrap_inline36 .

The remaining parentheses tex2html_wrap_inline38 contain multiplication and addition. Complete the multiplication first. tex2html_wrap_inline40 can be modified to 3 + 28 - 8 = 31 - 8 = 23 and 23 + 10 = 33.

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_inline44 .
Answer

Problem 2: Calculate tex2html_wrap_inline46 .
Answer

Problem 3: Calculate tex2html_wrap_inline132 .
Answer

[Identification] [Factoring Integers] [Reducing Fractions] [Multiplication]
[Division] [Building Fractions] [Addition] [Subtraction]
[Order of Operation]

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Author: Nancy Marcus

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