Sarah’s dad tells her she can have the greater of the following two amounts for her allowance (in dollars): 1. 2 times the difference of 5 and 1 2. 5 times 1 minus 2 What is Sarah’s allowance, in dollars?

Question

Sarah’s dad tells her she can have the greater of the following two amounts for her allowance (in dollars):     1. 2 times the difference of 5 and 1     2. 5 times 1 minus 2    What is Sarah’s allowance, in dollars?

anonymous · Answer

For 1. you have 2*(5-1).  Order of operations dictates that we do 5-1 first to get 4, then multiply by 2 to get 8.  $8.
For 2. you have 5*1-2.  Order of operations dictates that we do multiplication first, so 5*1 which is 5, then minus 2, which is 3.  $3. 
So Sarah should get $8 for her allowance.  HTH!