The What's, Why's, and When's of Order of Operations

I. What is the Order of Operations? (A set of rules used to solve mathematical

problems PEMDAS)

Imagine driving your vehicle to go to work or school. Suddenly, you start hearing
a loud constant noise from the back side of
your vehicle. You park your car to the side of
the road to check what is happening and you
find out your vehicle has a flat tire. You must
get to work or school as soon as possible, so
there is no choice to wait for help. You decide
to change the flat tire. List the steps you must
take to change the flat tire of your vehicle.
Remember about safety!

List steps to change a flat tire:

a. Take out the tools

b. Loos bolts (little)
c. Jack up car
d. Take bolts out
e. Replace tire
f. Put back bolts
g. Tight bolts
h. Bring down car
i. Clean up

This example illustrates the concept of order of operations. Explain in your own words
what the order of operations is.

P—arentesis

E—xponents

M—ultilication

D—ivision

A—ddision

S—ubtraction
 II. Why we need the Order of Operations?(To add up the answers and total
correctly)

Read the following comic strip:

Based on the comic strip, explain why we need the order of operations.

(We need the order of operation because in case we get fouled or charged
more than the correct amount of money. For example, the customer asked
the employee how much she owed him and he said 90 dollars, but in total
was 66 dollars. The employee calculated wrong adding the 6 and 12 first
then multiplying 5. While the customer calculated a different answer
multiplying 12 and 5, then adding 6 coming up with an answer of $66.)

III. When do we use Order of Operations? (We can use it at any time)

Write an expression that simplifies to 3. Your expression must

contain exponents, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction, and at least one
set of parenthesis. Explain the process you would use to simplify the expression.
Use Equation Editor to write and simplify the expression.

62+10÷210-8-43

62+10÷22-43

36+10÷22-43

36+5(2)-43

36+10-43

46-43

3
Reference:

Image Source for flat tire - http://www.flickr.com/photos/apoptotic/1333823258/