This Sum Again...

[ummmm]

7 + 7 ÷ 7 + 7 x 7 - 7 = ?

[ummmm]

I understand that completely. If it's what you enjoy. There's you doing your maths and sometimes I find myself watching CBeebies :-)

I'm joking....I've grown out of it now....

[kawakiri]

Sorry I missed this I would have thrown my 50 pence worth in.

[FrogNog]

Yeah me too Ummmm. I watch CBBC now.

[murraymints]

I am of the school of thought that brackets should be used if numbers are to be grouped together..that's what we were taught ...as is written there are 5 clear separate calculations...

[zebo]

Then you were taught badly! Brackets are only need to modify the universally accepted order of priority of operations. It isn't wrong to bracket a multiplication or division, it's just a bit of belt and braces.

[Jackdaw33]

I think that's what Murraymints meant.

In my example earlier:

[{(7 + 7) ÷ 7} + 7] x 7 - 7 = 56

working from the centre outwards tells me that first I must calculate 7 +7, then divide the answer by 7, add 7, multiply by 7 then subtract 7. Different shaped brackets to avoid confusion.

[Peter Pedant]

yeah Jack daw I did BODMAS in 1960 too
Form 3 - Col Stewart....

we had O as "of"... 2/3 of 21 is 14 ...

[Jackdaw33]

The O actually stands for orders, an old word for powers, exponentials, indices, all the same thing. Depending on your preferred term you could call it BEDMAS or BIDMAS.