
Kathye P. answered 10/04/12
Math Geek, passionate about teaching
Hi, Julian.
If I understand your question right, it would look something like this:
5(3(4)+2)2
Let me try to shade it to make the parts a little more obvious:
5(3(4)+2)2
Working through the order of operations or PEMDAS, we do parentheses and exponents first.
The exponent goes with everything in the parentheses that it is next to, that is, inside the orange parentheses. Simplifying inside the parentheses, we get:
(3 * 4 + 2) ---> (12 + 2) ---> (14)
So we have 5(14)2
5(14 * 14)
5 * 196
980
Hope this helps!