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Section 4: Order of Arithmetic Operations

When performing a series of arithmetic operations (i.e. addition, subtraction, division, multiplication, exponents), you must perform those operations in a particular order. There is a mnemonic to help you remember the order - PEMDAS:

P	Parentheses
E	Exponents
M	Multiplication
D	Division
A	Addition
S	Subtraction

If you have a series of operations, do what’s in parentheses first, then apply exponents, then do any multiplication or division, and finally do any adding or subtracting.

Example:

Do what’s in parentheses first (find LCD):

So now we have

Now apply exponents:

So now we have

Now do multiplication:

So now we have

Now do addition and subtraction (find LCD):
is the same as

So our answer is

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