SOLUTION: Why is it necessary to study the order of operations and the laws of operations before you begin solving equations?

Question 150997: Why is it necessary to study the order of operations and the laws of operations before you begin solving equations?
Answer by vleith(2983) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Let's look at this from a different point of view.
Why is it important to know which order to run the bases in baseball before playing a real game? Why is it important to know the rules of football before playing?
You need to know the rules because without them, you will 'make it up as you go along'. Without a defined set of rules, you end up with different answers for the same question. And math isn't like that. 2 + 2 is always 4.
If you don't know the rules, and the order you execute them, you end up getting different answers for the same equation.
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