please excuse my dear Aunt Sally

English edit

Etymology edit

Ultimately from PEMDAS.

Phrase edit

please excuse my dear Aunt Sally

  1. (mathematics) A mnemonic used to help people remember the order of operations, in the PEMDAS order.

Usage notes edit

This mnemonic leads many to the notion that multiplication is precedent to division, and addition to subtraction; however, these are within the pairs equal in precedence and resolved from left to right.

Synonyms edit