Do you always have to follow the order of operations when solving and equation or simplifying an expression?

Question

Do you always have to follow the order of operations when solving and equation or simplifying an expression?

Yes

No

Answer 1

Make sure you notice that you use order of operations PEMDAS when simplifying an expression, but it's different when you are solving an equation.

1/2 x^2 - 3 = 1

To solve this you work the order of operations in reverse order

You would do your addition/subtraction first, mult/div next, and deal with the exponents last.

1/2 x - 3 = 1 add 3 to both sides

1/2 x = 4 mult both sides by 2

x = 8

Answer 2

no, not always - i.e.

4(x + 3) + 2 = 10

Order of Operations says you MUST do inside the parenthesis first, however you canNOT add x + 3
so
you can use the Distributive property to avoid this problem and get around the parenthesis

4x + 12 + 2 = 10

Answer 3

Yes, otherwise you could get the wrong answer.

For instance, let's look at this example:

4 - 2 * 6

If we do it correctly, we have:

4 - 24 = -20

If we do it incorrectly, we get:

2 * 6 = 12

Answer 4

Only if you want to get the right answer.

Answer 5

NO!!

You must follow the mnemonic Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally


Parentheses
Exponents
Multiply
Divide
Add
Subtract

See source below for an example.

Answer 6

YES

Answer 7

yes, ALWAYS!!!!!!!!!!