McGraw Hill Glencoe Geometry, 2012
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McGraw Hill Glencoe Geometry, 2012 View details
1. Representing Sample Spaces
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Exercise 46 Page 921

Pay close attention to the order of operations.

4.5

Practice makes perfect
According to the order of operations, expressions that include an exponent are evaluated first, while multiplication and division are evaluated next. For the given expression, this means calculating the power in the numerator before multiplying the factors in the denominator and calculating the quotient.
Operation Before Simplification After Simplification
Calculate power 3^3/3* 2 27/3* 2
Multiply 27/3* 2 27/6
Calculate quotient 27/6 4.5
The expression equals 4.5.

Alternative Solution

Using a Calculator

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