yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Writing expressions with parentheses | 6th grade | Khan Academy


2m read
·Nov 10, 2024

We have two different statements written in English that I would like you to pause this video and try to write as an algebraic expression.

All right, now let's work on this first one. So you might be tempted to say, "All right, I have five, so let me just write a five times," and I'll write a dot because when we're dealing with algebra, if you write a traditional multiplication sign, it can get confused with an x.

Five times the difference of x and two. The difference of x and two we could write as x minus, but this expression has a problem because whoever's interpreting it, if they're following order of operations (which they should), that would mean that they would multiply the 5 and the x first and then subtract 2.

But that's not what's going on in the sentence. It's 5 times, not x, but the difference of x and 2. So what you need to do is put parentheses here to make sure that you take the difference of x and 2 first and then multiply that by 5.

Now, with that in mind, let's tackle this example right over here: 10 times the sum of y and 3. Well, once again, if you just wrote 10 times the sum of y and 3, you'll run into the same problem. Someone would interpret this as, "Hey, maybe I should multiply 10 and y first because that's what order of operations would tell me to do."

But that's not what we want. We want 10 times, not just y, but the sum of y and 3. So that's where the parentheses are really important to make sure that we take the sum of y and 3 first and then multiply that by 10.

More Articles

View All
Stare decisis and precedent in the Supreme Court | US government and civics | Khan Academy
As we’ve talked about in many videos, the United States Supreme Court has a very different role than the executive or the legislative branches. The executive branch, of course, runs the government. The legislative branch, they make the laws and set the bu…
MANTIS MURDER SHRIMP (Slow Motion) - Smarter Every Day 121
Yeah. Hey it’s me Destin, welcome back to Smarter Every Day. So I’ve seen enough videos on the internet of a mantis shrimp punching to have a good idea of what’s going on, but I don’t understand it, like at the mechanical level. So today on Smarter Ever…
Stoic Secrets to Financial Freedom
Secret to financial freedom in today’s economic crisis isn’t found in some get-rich-quick scheme or through social media charlatans trying to sell you their latest course. The truth is the most essential principles about building wealth can be learned fro…
Exoplanets 101 | National Geographic
(Dramatic music) [Narrator] They are nestled in the final frontier, countless worlds scattered throughout countless galaxies, challenging the notion that we are alone in the universe. Exoplanets are worlds that exist outside of our solar system. Also kno…
Theorem for limits of composite functions | Limits and contiuity | AP Calculus | Khan Academy
In this video, we’re going to try to understand limits of composite functions, or at least a way of thinking about limits of composite functions. In particular, we’re going to think about the case where we’re trying to find the limit as x approaches a of …
The Ancient Orchestra | Podcast | Overheard at National Geographic
So the first thing I want to do here, Amy, is just play you something. Okay? Out of the blue. [Music] Okay, so that is not Chewbacca, right? No? Just okay, let’s clear that up right now. You like the oldies, right? Yeah, but not that old. All these people…