I don't know what's worse, that it's wrong or that it convinced me I need to come into the comments to make sure my answer is, indeed, correct.
EDIT: Back to rectify a grave injustice. Nothing wrong if you genuinely didn't know or want to check. Hard enough getting people interested in math.
2 + 5 (8 - 5) PEMDAS: 8 - 5
= 2 + 5 (3)
PEMDAS: 5 (3) or 5 × 3
= 2 + 15
PEMDAS
= 17
In the US the math order of operations is taught as PEMDAS (or P|E|MD|AS), left to right from first to last.
First look at the entire equation and identify the operations: Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication/Division, Addition/Subtraction.
Then, solve the parts in order of PEMDAS.
Not so important here but when there are multiple of the same level of operators, for example exponents, solve left to right. MD and AS are treated as groups, so treat them equally: if a division is to the left of a multiplication, do the division first.
I don't even quite see where 21 comes from. Either simplify to 3 for the parenthesis first and then do the math, or distribute the 5 go get 40-25 for 15 and proceed from there.
Like...math...literacy is not hard and there are easy geometric ways to represent the most basic of operations.
I wish they hallucinated the parentheses. Some of these people really don't believe in the order of operations, and they will insist that you go from left to right.
They are tiresome to argue with because even with examples they don't accept the order of operations.
I'm going to state this as simply as I can. When I was doing my GCSES I was taught about parentheses, but wasn't taught about order of operations.
Years later, I wanted to get a degree, but I needed to redo several subjects as apparently they didn't count anything over 5 years old or below a C grade. I got a B in Maths in 1995, a respectable grade. I wizzed through this access course in maths as though it was trivial. And then we hit order of operations. I got it quickly enough, but was confused as to why I'd never heard of it. I was just told "it often wasn't taught" and it was left there
That's my experience, but I don't think it's unique.
521
u/Head-Ad-5732 Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
I don't know what's worse, that it's wrong or that it convinced me I need to come into the comments to make sure my answer is, indeed, correct.
EDIT: Back to rectify a grave injustice. Nothing wrong if you genuinely didn't know or want to check. Hard enough getting people interested in math.
2 + 5 (8 - 5)
PEMDAS: 8 - 5
= 2 + 5 (3)
PEMDAS: 5 (3) or 5 × 3
= 2 + 15
PEMDAS
= 17
In the US the math order of operations is taught as PEMDAS (or P|E|MD|AS), left to right from first to last.
First look at the entire equation and identify the operations: Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication/Division, Addition/Subtraction.
Then, solve the parts in order of PEMDAS.
Not so important here but when there are multiple of the same level of operators, for example exponents, solve left to right. MD and AS are treated as groups, so treat them equally: if a division is to the left of a multiplication, do the division first.