Why Order Matters

Type 2 + 3 x 4 into a calculator. The answer is 14, not 20. Multiplication happens before addition — this is the order of operations, and without it the same expression would give different answers to different people.

The convention remembered as PEMDAS (Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication/Division, Addition/Subtraction) is not a law of nature. It is an agreement, like driving on the right. But everyone must follow it, or formulas in finance, science, and engineering produce contradictory results. A tax formula that adds before multiplying could cost millions.