Order Of Operations

Order of Operations Author: Matthew Westerhoff

The order of operations goes as follows: 1. Parenthesis, Brackets, Curly Braces, Absolute Value 2. Exponents 3. Multiply / Divide (which ever comes first when reading from left to right) 4. Addition / Subtraction (which ever comes first when reading from left to right)

Example 1: Evaluate: 10 ÷ 2 + 6 × 4 − 8

10 ÷ 2 + 6 × 4 − 8 =⇒ 5 + 6 × 4 − 8 5 + 6 × 4 − 8 =⇒ 5 + 24 − 8 5 + 24 − 8 =⇒ 29 − 8 29 − 8 =⇒ 21

Example 2: Evaluate: −25 ÷ (−4) ×

(divide) (multiply) (add) (subtract)

µ ¶2 1 − 12 × (−15 + 24 )3 . 2

µ ¶2 µ ¶2 1 1 4 3 5 − 12 × (−15 + 2 ) =⇒ −2 ÷ (−4) × − 12 × (1)3 −2 ÷ (−4) × 2 2 µ ¶2 1 1 −25 ÷ (−4) × − 12 × (1)3 =⇒ −32 ÷ (−4) × − 12 × 1 2 4 1 1 −32 ÷ (−4) × − 12 × 1 =⇒ 8 × − 12 × 1 4 4 1 8 × − 12 × 1 =⇒ 2 − 12 4 2 − 12 =⇒ −10 5

1

(parenthesis) (exponents) (division) (multiplication) (subtract)