Expert: Bobby Soltani - 12/8/2004

Question
what is 5+(2*10)-5/2=

thank you, me and this friend are going back and forth on it and need a third oppinion.

Answer
Hi Marcus,

Here is a third, and hopefully final, opinion.

5 + (2*10) - 5/2 =
multiply 2*10 to get 20

5 + 20 - 5/2
add 5 plus 20

25 - 5/2 =
multiply the 25 by 2/2 to get a common denominator.  We can do this because 2/2 = 1 and anything times 1 is itself so we are not changing anything.

50/2 - 5/2
Now we have the same denominators, so we can subtract the numerators.

=45/2

That is the answer.  It can also be expressed as 22 1/2 or 22.5.

Bobby