Quoting Amelia [12 Weeks]:" The equation is not written correctly without the parentheses. If you put the addition before the multiplication ... [snip!] ... in the equation then you must include parentheses in order to make it correct. So I'm not sure what your point is?"

My point is that when I was in math class......things would be IN brackets or NOT thought to be taken care of first. So if I were to read 3+10 x 100, the way I was taught was to say three plus ten times 100. So it would be done left to right. If I were to write it - I would write it (3+10)100....not (3+10) x 100 and I would have had to write it so there was NO ambiguity OR I would have been marked down for it. so...instead let me write it this way..

Let's say I was supposed to do the equation of 3 + 10 x 100 NOT as my story problem reads but as BEDMAS...that equation, I would have to write (when I was in school) as (10 x 100) + 3, or I would have been considered wrong for NOT putting the 10 x 100 into brackets to SIGNIFY it would be done first...instead of relying a BEDMAS rule. I am not understanding why they are not using brackets instead of relying on doing multiplication or division first. Using brackets is not hard. So I don't get why not just write the original equation as 7-4 + (3x0) + 1 ? Maybe there is some reasoning that brackets can't be used that I am not seeing...???

Overall though it really doesn't matter much to me - I get the concept just fine and I have never done anything in my adult life that requires this, but I am just trying to understand why.

Quoting justanothamotha:" My point is that when I was in math class......things would be IN brackets or NOT thought to be taken ... [snip!] ... concept just fine and I have never done anything in my adult life that requires this, but I am just trying to understand why."

My mathematics doesn't go much beyond the 5th grade (which is what I taught) but I would imagine there are circumstances where relying on BEDMAS is the only appropriate way to write the equation.