Order of operations (PEMDAS)

What is PEMDAS?

Each term above is called an "operation." The acronym PEMDAS describes the priority that operations have in an equation.

Example

In the equation 100 - 5 × (4 ^ 2 - 10) + 8:

Step 1: Parentheses

We first look for "P" - parentheses. Our equation includes them. This is what's inside: 4 ^ 2 - 10

Step 2: Exponents

We view this now as its own equation. Since it doesn't have any parentheses, we can check for "E" - exponents. There is an exponent, so we evaluate it: 4 ^ 2 = 16. Now we have: 16 - 10 = 6

Step 3: Replace parentheses

Since we are done with the parentheses, we zoom back out to the original equation and replace the expression in the parentheses with the result we just got. Now our equation is: 100 - 5 × 6 + 8

Step 4: Multiplication

We don't have any more parentheses or exponents, so now we check for "M" - multiplication. We see: 5 × 6 = 30

Step 5: Addition and subtraction

And now our equation reduces to: 100 - 30 + 8 = 78