maths.free › Arithmetic › Order of operations
Order of operations
Brackets, powers, multiply/divide, add/subtract — and why the order is not optional.
An expression like 3 + 4 × (2 − 1)² has only one correct value because everyone agrees on the order: brackets first, then exponents, then multiplication and division left to right, then addition and subtraction left to right. The animation below performs exactly one operation per step, in that order.