Your job is to follow the Order of Operations in which one always does the operations in a math problem in a sequence of:
P arenthesis first
E xponents second
M ultiply or
Dvide next whichever is first in line left to right
A dd and
S ubtract last. Always do multipling and dividing ahead of adding and subtracting.
So take the numbers 8 4 2 1 and keep them in that order. You may add parenthesis , exponents, + - X or divide.
Now make those numbers =
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
An example would be ( 8-4) + 2 -1 = 5 since 8-4 goes first and that = 4 + 2 -1 which is 5