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I have never understood why you would process multiplication and division as separate reduction steps, besides for simplification in elementary-school learning

I have never understood why you would process multiplication and division as separate reduction steps, besides for simplification in elementary-school learning materials. It seems completely arbitrary. Division is just multiplying by an inverse, and subtraction is just adding negative numbers. PEMDAS seems like something that is taught to you, and then never correctly explained.

taproot 14y ago
BEDMAS (what I was taught in school) really throws some confusion in there concerning PEMDAS. Heh. We've started using PEMA in NZ to lessen confusion. I assume they go on to explain where division / subtraction went.