Question

How do you evaluate `2+3*4`?

Answer 1

Perform multiplication first, and then addition. Thus, the correct result is 14.

Explanation:

The order of operations, often remembered via the mnemonic device "Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally" (PEMDAS, for Parenthesis, Exponent, Multiplication & Division, Addition & Subtraction), details the order in which one should perform operations in an expression.

Typically multiplication and division are done together because either one can be expressed in terms of the other (e.g. one could express dividing something by 2 as multiplying by `1/2`). Similarly, with addition and subtraction, adding `-1` can be expressed as subtracting 1.

With this being the case, let's return to our initial expression:

`2+3*4`

We have no parenthesis or exponents, so we move to multiplication/division:

`2+3*4=2+12`

And finally addition:

`2+12=14`