Calculators and the Order of Operations
The Order of Operations is known to most modern calculators:
1.
Groupings
2. Exponents
3. Multiplication and Division from
left-to-right
4. Addition and Subtraction from left-to-right
This order is
generally clear and unambiguous but problems do occur. One problem is
a bug in Casio calculators made before 2007. For example, the
expressionshould
evaluate to 16 according to the order of operations. The division
should be done first. It is evaluated incorrectly to 1 by earlier
Casio calculators. If you instead enter
the
Casio will give the correct answer. TI calculators do not have this
problem. Casio has fixed this problem in newer calculators.
A common
problem students often have is failing to recognize an implied
grouping. In the expression
the
numerator forms an implied grouping. We know that we must do the
addition first, but the calculator is not aware that there is a
horizontal fraction bar (a vinculum). A horizontal fraction
bar causes an implied grouping. The calculator must be told there is
a grouping by entering
.
If we naively enter
into
the calculator, we will get the wrong answer because the calculator
will perform the division first. Another example of an implied
grouping that often causes problems is
.
In this expression we must perform the multiplication before the
exponent. Again, the calculator must be told there is a grouping
.
I also often see students incorrectly evaluate compound fractions, such as occurs in the test statistic for the t distribution hypothesis test. To evaluate this on a calculator, the fraction in the denominator must be put in parentheses:
These same
grouping rules apply if you are programming in a computer language,
or if you are posting a problem in an email or on a math forum web
site. For example, the rational expression
must
be written as (x^2 – 3x – 10) / (x^2 + 5x + 6) with
parentheses to demark the groupings that are implied by the
horizontal fraction bar.
Rick Castrapel Imperial Valley College 2007