# evaluation of mathematical expressions - always left to right?

Is there a rule in mathematics that states that expressions shall be evaluated from left to right assuming that all operators in the expression share the same precedence?

e.g. given the expression 6 / 2 * (1 + 2)
is there a rule so that only (6 / 2) * (1 + 2) (result: 9) is a valid representation and
6 / (2 * (1 + 2)) (result: 1) is invalid?

edit: I am asking this, because I get different results on different calculators.

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Well, then the calculator giving wrong results is wrong. Plain wrong. –  Kendall Frey Oct 11 '12 at 13:45

Yes. 6 / (2 * (1 + 2)) is wrong.

Note that even though + - * / go left to right, some operators, like ^, go right to left.

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No. The answer is mostly yes, for operators at the same level of presedence, such as multiplication and division, or addition and subtraction, but some operators bind more strongly than others, so that it is wrong to read $a-b\cdot c$ as $(a-b)\cdot c$. There is also the case of nested powers: $x^{y^z}$ should be read as $x^{(y^z)}$ and not as $(x^y)^z$ – which would be more easily written as $x^{yz}$ anyhow.

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