Quote:
Originally Posted by oojay
The standard order of operations, or precedence, is expressed here:
Terms inside Parenthesis
Exponents and Roots
Multiplication and Division
Addition and Subtraction
This means that if a mathematical expression is preceded by one operator and followed by another, the operator higher on the list should be applied first. The commutative and associative laws of addition and multiplication allow terms to be added in any order and factors to be multiplied in any order, but mixed operations must obey the standard order of operations.
Multiplication takes precedence over Division, as Division is the inverse of it, deeming Multiplication the "positive" operation.
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You were correct until the bolded part. Just as division is the inverse of multiplication, multiplication is the inverse of division. It works both ways. Neither should be dealt with before the other, unless they come first in the equation.