Why Multiplication Has Higher Priority than Addition: A Pedagogical Remark

Authors

Olga Kosheleva, The University of Texas at El PasoFollow
Vladik Kreinovich, The University of Texas at El PasoFollow

Publication Date

11-2016

Comments

Technical Report: UTEP-CS-16-81

Abstract

Traditionally, multiplication has higher priority over addition; this means that there is no need to add parentheses if we want to perform multiplication first, and we need to explicitly add parentheses if we want addition to be performed first. Why not use an alternative arrangement, in which addition has higher priority? In this paper, we explain the traditional priority arrangement by showing that in the general case, the traditional arrangement allows us to use fewer parentheses than the alternative one.