order of operations

Hi everybody,

I'm having some trouble with a concept Sal explains early in the video below

https://www.khanacademy.org/math/arithmetic/arith-review-multiply-divide/modal/v/division-using-understanding-of-place-value

He explains that to calculate 5600 : 8, you can write 5600 as 56 X 100. So you get 56 X 100 : 8. So far so good. Then, he explains that you can rewrite 56 X 100 : 8 as 56 : 8 X 100

Here I get confused. I was taught that multiplication and division are equally important, so in the above example, you would calculate from left to right, and then you're back with 5600 : 8

So why does this work? And does this mean that multiplication and division can be switched around like this?

Thanks for your help!