Exercise 41 Page 53

According to the order of operations, expressions inside parentheses are evaluated first, followed by exponents, then multiplication and division, and finally addition and subtraction are evaluated last. We can use the acronym PEMDAS to help us remember the correct order! For the given expression, this means evaluating the expression inside the parentheses completely before adding the product.

- 4(3^2-8)+1 Notice also that even within this parenthetical expression, we must follow the order of operations. In this case, we need to first evaluate the exponent expression before subtracting terms. 3^2-8 Let's do it!

Operation	Before Simplification	After Simplification
Calculate Power	- 4(3^2-8)+1	- 4( 9-8)+1
Subtract Terms	- 4( 9- 8)+1	- 4( 1)+1
Multiply	- 4( 1)+1	- 4+1
Add terms	- 4+ 1	- 3

The expression is equal to - 3.

Alternative Solution

Using a Calculator

We can also evaluate this expression using a calculator. To do so, we type it as shown below.