Question

How do you add parentheses so that the equation `14-:2+5times5=10` will be correct?

Answer 1

`(14-:(2+5))xx5=10`

Explanation:

We need to find a way to do an order of operations that makes the left side of the equation equal 10.

As it is, without parentheses, we would first multiply to get `5xx5=25`, then divide `14-:2=7`, then add those to give 32. Much too big.

We know `2xx5=10`, so can we find something to divide `14` by to give `2`? Hmm, `2+5` seems convenient!

`14-:(2+5)xx5=10`

This way, though, we would still do the multiplication first, which would give is 14-:35, which is still not 10. We need to signal that the division should be done first with some more parentheses:

`(14-:(2+5))xx5=10`