eli5 Difference between (5+6) x 3-1 and 5+6 x (3-1)

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According to the calculator they have different answers, the first being 32 and the latter being 17. I got the answer 22 when i worked it out.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Rewriting your equations so that left-to-right matches the order of operations:

(5+6)*3 – 1 = 11*3 – 1 = 33 – 1 = 32

(3-1)*6 + 5 = 2*6 + 5 = 12 + 5 = 17

*Always* finish the inside of the brackets/parenthesis first. That’s what they mean; “do this part first before anything else”. If you fail to do that, then you are doing wrong math.

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