You can put this solution on YOUR website! (15 – 5) ÷ [(12 ÷ 2 · 2) – 2]
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First do the work inside the parentheses. The (15-5) becomes just 10.
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Then go to the interior set of parentheses in the next expression. That is the parentheses
that contain (12 ÷ 2 · 2). First do the multiplication and divisions from left to right. That means
the first thing to do is divide 12 by 2 to get 6. Then multiply that by 2 to get 12. So you
can replace (12 ÷ 2 · 2) by 12. [There were no additions or subtractions in these parentheses
so you didn't need to do any adds or take aways next from left to right.
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At this point the original problem has been simplified to:
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10 ÷ [12 - 2]
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Do the work in the brackets (which are a different way of showing parentheses) and you
get that 12 - 2 = 10. The equation is now reduced to 10 divided by 10 and the answer to
that is obviously +1.
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The rules for working in single line problems are:
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First do the work inside parentheses
Second work on any terms that have exponents
Third do the multiplications and divisions in order from left to right
Fourth do the additions and subtractions in order from left to right
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[Note that in working inside parentheses you may have to use the second, third, and fourth
rules before going on to the next set of parentheses.]
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Easier to say than it is to recognize what to do next, isn't it? It sure would have been
easier to see if the original problem had been written:
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But that's just my opinion ...
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