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Order of Operations, Including Negative Numbers

PEMDAS is useful, but it hides two details that cause most mistakes.

The order

  1. Parentheses.
  2. Exponents.
  3. Multiplication and division, from left to right.
  4. Addition and subtraction, from left to right.

Multiplication doesn't always come before division. They share one step, and so do addition and subtraction.

Worked examples

Example:

Multiply first:

Left to right:

Example:

Left to right:

Negatives: and

, because the exponent applies only to the 3.

, because the parentheses include the negative.

Common mistake

This multiplies first because the M comes before the D in PEMDAS. Work left to right instead, and you get 25.

Try it yourself

  1. Show answer

    16

  2. Show answer

    12

  3. Show answer

    1

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