First of all, whether you remember BEDMAS or PEDMAS (Brackets vs Parenthesis) there are a few areas for clarification that you will need to know. I am going to take BEDMAS or PEDMAS letter by letter to provide you with stability when applying BEDMAS in order to remember the order of operations is basic algebra. You'll find many acronyms here to help you remember the order of operations.
Let's start with the B or P, which ever you are more comfortable with using.
B or P
The most important thing to realize is that the groups are always done first whether they be parenthesis or brackets and in many cases you will be required to solve from the inside out when working between the brackets or the parenthesis. You may encounter square brackets,[] curly brackets{} or just parenthesis (). Always evaluate what is inside the brackets first these are grouped for a reason. You may encounter nested brackets (9-(4+2)) x 2 and you will repeat the process working from inner to outer. In this example, the inner bracket is a subset of the group and you will do it first: 4+2.
E
Typically the E stands for exponents. However, one must remember that if your equation includes roots, you will do them in order. If roots come first, do them first, if exponents comes first, do them first. However if there are radicands, you must remember to do them in the P or E as they are considered to be groups which include all brackets or parenthesis.
D M and then A and S
With the D, I should emphasize that DMA and S refer to the 4 operations of math: Divide, Multiply, Add and Subtract. What I want to emphasize here is that Division (D) is no more important than Multiplication (M), and M is no more important than D and should be treated that way. Most importantly division and multiplication should always come before addition and subtraction. However, remember that you are working left to right and you will perform the operation that comes first. Multiplication and Division are treated equally. The same apply for addition and subtraction, they are treated equally in that one operation is no more important than the other. Again, you are working left to right which is your main priority.
A lot of individuals will tell you that BEDMAS or PEDMAS is mis-leading. However, if you follow the information here, you should be well equipped to move forward in basic algebra and pre-algebra.
Let's start with the B or P, which ever you are more comfortable with using.
B or P
The most important thing to realize is that the groups are always done first whether they be parenthesis or brackets and in many cases you will be required to solve from the inside out when working between the brackets or the parenthesis. You may encounter square brackets,[] curly brackets{} or just parenthesis (). Always evaluate what is inside the brackets first these are grouped for a reason. You may encounter nested brackets (9-(4+2)) x 2 and you will repeat the process working from inner to outer. In this example, the inner bracket is a subset of the group and you will do it first: 4+2.
E
Typically the E stands for exponents. However, one must remember that if your equation includes roots, you will do them in order. If roots come first, do them first, if exponents comes first, do them first. However if there are radicands, you must remember to do them in the P or E as they are considered to be groups which include all brackets or parenthesis.
D M and then A and S
With the D, I should emphasize that DMA and S refer to the 4 operations of math: Divide, Multiply, Add and Subtract. What I want to emphasize here is that Division (D) is no more important than Multiplication (M), and M is no more important than D and should be treated that way. Most importantly division and multiplication should always come before addition and subtraction. However, remember that you are working left to right and you will perform the operation that comes first. Multiplication and Division are treated equally. The same apply for addition and subtraction, they are treated equally in that one operation is no more important than the other. Again, you are working left to right which is your main priority.
A lot of individuals will tell you that BEDMAS or PEDMAS is mis-leading. However, if you follow the information here, you should be well equipped to move forward in basic algebra and pre-algebra.