Order or Hierarchy of Operations with Fractions

๐Ÿ†Practice special cases (0 and 1, inverse, fraction line)

Order or Hierarchy of Operations with Fractions

Fractions do not influence the order of operations, therefore, you should treat them like any other number in the exercise.

The correct order of mathematical operations is as follows:

  1. Parentheses
  2. Multiplications and divisions in the order they appear in the exercise
  3. Additions and subtractions in the order they appear in the exercise
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Test yourself on special cases (0 and 1, inverse, fraction line)!

einstein

Indicate whether the equality is true or not.

\( (5^2+3):2^2=5^2+(3:2^2) \)

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Order or Hierarchy of Operations with Fractions

The order of mathematical operations with fractions is no different from the order of operations without fractions.
This means that if you know how to correctly solve a certain exercise based on the order of mathematical operations, you will also know how to solve an exercise with fractions in the same way.
Let's remember the order of operations:

  1. Parentheses - We always start by solving what is inside the parentheses, regardless of the type of operation it is.
  2. Multiplications and divisions โ€“ The exercise is read from left to right. Multiplications and divisions have the same hierarchy, therefore, we will resolve them according to their order of appearance in the exercise, from left to right.
  3. Additions and subtractions - After having solved the operations that were in parentheses and those of multiplying and dividing, we will continue with addition and subtraction.
    They also share the same hierarchy, therefore, we will resolve them according to their order of appearance in the exercise, from left to right.

Note - We have not given any importance to fractions, nor have we mentioned them.
We will treat fractions like any other number, whether it is a common fraction or a decimal number, it's all the same.


Examples

Exercise 1

3+6ร—13=3+6 \times \frac{1}{3}=

Solution:

Multiplication comes before addition, therefore, we will first solve all the multiplications.
We will obtain:

3+633+\frac{6}{3}
Now we will add and get:
3+2=53+2=5


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Exercise 2

25ร—(1+3)+4=\frac{2}{5} \times (1+3)+4=

Solution:
Parentheses come first, so we will start by solving what's inside them.

We will obtain:
25ร—4+4=\frac{2}{5} \times 4+4=
Multiplication comes before addition, so we will continue with the multiplication.

We will obtain:
85+4\frac{8}{5}+4
Now we will add and get:

485=5354\frac{8}{5}=5\frac{3}{5}


Exercise 3

0.3+(0.4+0.1)ร—4=0.3+(0.4+0.1) \times 4=

Solution:

We will start with the expression inside the parentheses.

We will solve and obtain:
0.3+0.5ร—4=0.3+0.5 \times 4=

Multiplication is resolved before addition, so we will continue with it.

We will obtain:

0.3+2=0.3+2=

We will add and get:

0.3+2=2.30.3+2=2.3


Do you know what the answer is?

Exercise 4

8โˆ’9:18ร—6+5=8-9:18 \times 6+5=

Solution:

We know that if there are no parentheses we start with multiplication and division.
But in what order?
According to the order of appearance in the exercise, from left to right.
We start reading the exercise and we come across a division, therefore, we will start with it.

We will obtain:

8โˆ’918ร—6+5=8-\frac{9}{18} \times 6+5=

We will continue with the multiplication. We will realize that 9189 \over 18ย is, in fact, 121 \over 2
We will obtain:
8โˆ’12ร—6+5=8-\frac{1}{2} \times 6+5=

8โˆ’3+5=8-3+5=

Now we will continue with the addition and subtraction operations according to the order of appearance.
When we start reading the exercise from the beginning we come across a subtraction, therefore, we will resolve it first. We will obtain:

5+5=105+5=10


Exercise 5

5ร—3โˆ’48ร—2โˆ’3=5 \times 3-\frac{4}{8} \times 2-3=

Solution:

There are no parentheses, so we will start with the multiplication and division operations according to their order of appearance in the exercise.
We will start with the first multiplication on the left.

We will obtain:

15โˆ’48ร—2โˆ’3=15-\frac{4}{8} \times 2-3=

We will continue with the next multiplication and obtain:

15โˆ’88โˆ’3=15-\frac{8}{8}-3=

We will realize that 888 \over 8ย is 11.

We will subtract from left to right according to the order of appearance and obtain:

15โˆ’1โˆ’3=15-1-3=

14โˆ’3=1114-3=11


Check your understanding

Examples with solutions for Order or Hierarchy of Operations with Fractions

Exercise #1

Indicate whether the equality is true or not.

(52+3):22=52+(3:22) (5^2+3):2^2=5^2+(3:2^2)

Video Solution

Step-by-Step Solution

In order to determine the correctness (or incorrectness) of the given equation, let's simplify both sides separately:

A. Let's start with the expression on the left side:

(52+3):22 (5^2+3):2^2 Let's simplify this expression while remembering the order of operations which states that exponents come before multiplication and division, which come before addition and subtraction, and parentheses come before everything else, therefore we'll start by simplifying the expression inside the parentheses, this is done by calculating the numerical value of the terms with exponents within them, then we'll calculate the addition operation in the parentheses:

(52+3):22=(25+3):22=28:22 (5^2+3):2^2 =\\ (25+3):2^2 =\\ 28:2^2 We'll continue and remember that exponents come before division, therefore, we'll first calculate the term with the exponent which is the divisor in the expression (in fact, if we were to convert the division operation to a fraction, this term would be in the denominator), then we'll calculate the result of the division operation:

28:22=28:4=7 28:2^2 =\\ 28:4 =\\ 7 We've finished simplifying the expression on the left side of the given equation, let's summarize the simplification process:

(52+3):22=28:22=28:4=7 (5^2+3):2^2 =\\ 28:2^2= \\ 28:4 =\\ 7 B. Let's continue with the expression on the right side of the given equation:

52+(3:22) 5^2+(3:2^2) Similar to what we did in the previous part we'll simplify the expression while adhering to the order of operations mentioned earlier, therefore, we'll again start by simplifying the expression inside the parentheses, this is first done by calculating the numerical value of the term with the exponent (since exponents come before division), then we'll perform the division operation on the second term from the left (in parentheses), simultaneously we'll calculate the numerical value of the term with the exponent (the first from the left) and then we'll perform the addition operation:

52+(3:22)=52+(3:4)=25+34=2534 5^2+(3:2^2) =\\ 5^2+(3:4)=\\ 25+\frac{3}{4}=\\ 25\frac{3}{4} Note that since the division operation yielded a non-whole number we settled for converting this operation to a fraction, finally we performed the addition operation between the whole number and the fraction and wrote the result as a mixed number, this fraction can be converted to a decimal but there's no need for that,

Note that in this expression the parentheses are actually meaningless because multiplication and division come before addition and subtraction anyway, but good practice says that if they're noted in the problem, they should be given precedence in the approach,

We've finished simplifying the expression on the right side of the equation, since the calculation is short there's no need to summarize,

Let's return then to the original equation and substitute in place of the expressions on both sides the results of the simplifications detailed in A and B in order to determine its correctness (or incorrectness):

(52+3):22=52+(3:22)โ†“7=2534 (5^2+3):2^2=5^2+(3:2^2) \\ \downarrow\\ 7=25\frac{3}{4} Now we can definitively determine that the given equation is incorrect, meaning - we have a false statement,

Therefore the correct answer is answer B.

Answer

Not true

Exercise #2

Solve:

3โˆ’4+2+1 3-4+2+1

Video Solution

Step-by-Step Solution

We will use the substitution property to arrange the exercise a bit more comfortably, we will add parentheses to the addition operation:
(3+2+1)โˆ’4= (3+2+1)-4=
We first solve the addition, from left to right:
3+2=5 3+2=5

5+1=6 5+1=6
And finally, we subtract:

6โˆ’4=2 6-4=2

Answer

2

Exercise #3

Solve:

โˆ’5+4+1โˆ’3 -5+4+1-3

Video Solution

Step-by-Step Solution

According to the order of operations, addition and subtraction are on the same level and, therefore, must be resolved from left to right.

However, in the exercise we can use the substitution property to make solving simpler.

-5+4+1-3

4+1-5-3

5-5-3

0-3

-3

Answer

โˆ’3 -3

Exercise #4

Solve:

9โˆ’3+4โˆ’2 9-3+4-2

Video Solution

Step-by-Step Solution

According to the rules of the order of operations, we will solve the exercise from left to right since it only has addition and subtraction operations:

9โˆ’3=6 9-3=6

6+4=10 6+4=10

10โˆ’2=8 10-2=8

Answer

8

Exercise #5

Solve the following exercise:

12+3โ‹…0= 12+3\cdot0=

Step-by-Step Solution

According to the order of operations, we first multiply and then add:

12+(3โ‹…0)= 12+(3\cdot0)=

3ร—0=0 3\times0=0

12+0=12 12+0=12

Answer

12 12

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