Lesson Fifty-five: Decimal Multiplication and Parentheses
Remember that you do multiplication before addition or subtraction. Consider
the following examples.
.5 x .3 + .4 = .55
.5 x (.3 + .4) = .35
.4 - .2 x .3 = .34
(.4 - .2) x .3 = .06
Why do the following two problems have the same answer?
.4 x .3 + .3 = .42
(.4 x .3) + .3 = .42
The reason that these two problems have the answer is that the parentheses
are not necessary. We already do the multiplication first and so the
parentheses don't change a thing.