this post was submitted on 14 May 2026
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I have seen several people saying the order operation is

  • Brackets/Parenthesis
  • Orders (roots and powers)
  • Divisions
  • Multiplications
  • Subtractions
  • Additions

But I was taught it as

  • Brackets/Parenthesis
  • Roots and powers, left to right (independently of the exact operation)
  • Divisions and multiplications, left to right (independently of the exact operation)
  • Subtractions and additions, left to right (independently of the exact operation)

So, what order were you taught and/or use today?

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[โ€“] Ephera@lemmy.ml 17 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah, differentiating between multiplications vs. divisions and additions vs. subtractions doesn't make sense, because they're the same thing respectively, just written differently.

When you divide by 3, you can also multiply by โ…“.
When you subtract 7, you can also add -7.

There is one quirk to be aware of, though. When people notate a division with a long horizontal line, that implies parentheses around both of the expressions, top and bottom.

[โ€“] otter@lemmy.ca 2 points 10 hours ago

Something I haven't seen mentioned yet is how we remember it as either BEDMAS or PEMDAS, but not PEDMAS or BEMDAS. The order of M and D are tied to whether we use the term brackets or parentheses. BEMDAS sounds very wrong to me