quote:
Originally posted by foaly
wouldn't it be something like BEMDSAS then?
(Brackets, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Squareroot, Addition, Subtraction)
that's how I learned it... (more or less)
Squareroot is to the power of a half so it must come before multiplication and division. The order has to be:
- Brackets
- Index/Exponential/Power (including square root, cubic root, etc. as these are just to the power of 1/2, 1/3, etc. respectively)
- Multiplication (division is just multiplication of an inverse number)
- Addition (subtraction is just addition of an inverse number)
These are the rules that give our number system and these anecdotes are not needed fully. The only reason why division and subtraction are used are because the use of inverse is not taught until later in the curriculum and hence is beyond the understanding at that stage.
/ 
![[Image: markee.png]](http://mark.kernke.org/markee.png)
