SOLUTION: Hello, helping daughter with below problem.. can u pls help! simplify: 8-14*3/7+2 possible answers 1)4 2)6 3)7 4) 3 Thank you!

Question 537686: Hello,
helping daughter with below problem.. can u pls help!
simplify: 8-14*3/7+2
possible answers 1)4 2)6 3)7 4) 3
Thank you!

Found 2 solutions by stanbon, KMST:
Answer by stanbon(75887) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
simplify: 8-14*3/7+2
possible answers 1)4 2)6 3)7 4) 3
---
Rule of operation:
1st: scan from left to right performing mult and division where they occur.
That gives you: 8-42/7+2 followed by 8-6+2
----------------------------------------------------
2nd: scan from left to right performing addition and subtraction where they occur
That gives you: 2+2 followed by 4 as the final answer
================
Cheers,
Stan H.
==================
Answer by KMST(5328) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
For your daughter, having so many operations thrown at her at the same time is a big step. Like learning to ride a bike it may seem hard at times, but do not get discouraged. We all went through that too. I don't remember if I cried; it was very long ago.
In the early grades, students are given one operation to do at a time. That works well because even when they are older, if you give them more than one order at a time, they seem unable to remember them all. I had to tell my teenagers "take out the trash" first, and wait to ask them to water the plants until after they had taken out the trash.
When people started trying to write down more than one operation at a time they had to use parenthesis to indicate what needed to be done first. So, when calculating how much it would cost to buy 3 items costing $11 each, 5 items costing $8 each and 2 items costing $7 each, they would write the calculation as
(3*11)+(5*8)+(2*7)
Eventually they decided on a convention to save themselves from writing so many parentheses. They decided that other than within parenthesis, addition and subtraction would be last priority. Multiplications and divisions would be done first. So, the calculation above was written as 3*11+5*8+2*7 and less parentheses were written.
When you have parentheses, multiplications, divisions, additions and subtractions, you should calculate what's inside the parenthesis first, if necessary using the rules for second and third tasks that follow. Second task: in the spaces in between plus and minus signs, do all multiplications and divisions as written, from left to right. Third task: now that you have only plus and minus signs, do the calculations as written from left to right.

Later, you might be told that there are some equivalent ways of calculating, but don't worry about it for now.
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