order of operations

Question

1/3x^2

 

Answer 1

Is it 

 

1

___

3x²

 

or (1/3)x²?

 

Both cases involve exponents, multiplication and division but will produce different results.

 

 

In the first case, the product is in the denominator so it's like adding parenthesis, 1 / (3x2).  Here you will want to find out what 3x^2 is first by first squaring the value of x and then multiplying by 3 (exponents come before multiplication and division in PEMDAS). Then take that answer and do the division, 1 divided by that answer.

 

In the second case, you will want to find x² first then you are left with division and multiplication which go in order from left to right.  First divide 1/3 then multiply that by the value of x^2

 

Hope this helps :)

 

 

Answer 2

1/3X^2 = 1/3*X*X

 

You can now plug in the value for x and calculate the answer