Video Transcript
Calculate the following: seven plus two times two.
The first thing that we can notice is that there are multiple types of operations inside this expression. There is both addition and multiplication. When we have expressions with multiple operations, we have to use the order of operations, otherwise known as PEMDAS. This gives us the order we should always follow when we’re calculating expressions and equations.
The first step is always parentheses, the P. That includes parentheses or brackets, any kind of grouping. But our expression doesn’t have any parentheses. So we can move onto the next step. The E stands for exponents. This expression does not have any exponents.
The next step is multiplication and division in order from left to right. Does our expression contain any multiplication or division? It does. What that means is that we’ll need to multiply two times two as the first step. Two times two is four. And the rest of our equation, we just copy down exactly as it’s written. We bring down the seven and we bring down the addition symbol.
We’re finished with our multiplication and division step. Now, we need only add and subtract from left to right. This expression only has one remaining operation, and that’s addition. So we can go ahead and add. Seven plus four equals 11. We finished the order of operations and we’ve solved our expression.
