Abhinav solves 5 + 3 × 2 by working left to right: first 5+3=8, then 8×2=16

Why

Reading left to right is exactly how Abhinav reads a sentence, and it's a completely reasonable habit to bring to a string of numbers and symbols too — there's nothing careless about trying it. Maths expressions don't read purely left to right, though; certain operations have an agreed priority, so that everyone in the world gets the same answer from the same expression. Multiplication and division are done BEFORE addition and subtraction, regardless of the order they're written in. So 5 + 3 × 2 means 'first work out 3 × 2, THEN add 5 to it': 3 × 2 = 6, and 5 + 6 = 11. Abhinav's left-to-right method turned 5+3 into 8 first, which breaks that priority. Test: a shop bill for 5 rupees of one item plus 3 packets of something costing 2 rupees each should total 5 + (3×2) = 11 rupees, not 16 — the multiplication has to happen before the items get added up. Tanya is right, the answer is 11: multiplication is carried out before addition, whatever order the expression is written in, which is exactly why the world agreed on this rule in the first place — so nobody has to guess.