Question

To work out 20 - 5(3) you would multiply 5 and 3 first and then add the 20

to get a value of 35. Can you start at 35 and reverse those two steps to get
back to 32 Explain the two steps you would take to do that.

Answer 1

You would get 5.

Explanation:

According to the order of operations ( GEMDAS or PEMDAS ), in a problem the first step is grouping.

20 - 5(3) = 20 - 15, because 5 * 3 is 15 and parenthesis is a sign of multiplication. Then you would get:

20 - 15 = 5.

Here we would not inverse the subtraction sign, because there is an operation before the grouping

Would reverse operation:

20 - ( 5 + 3 )

Would NOT reverse operation:

20 - 5(2) Operation before the subtraction