General Discussions

Treat the (3+12) as X
48/2(X)

Now, read it out loud.
Did you say "48 divided by 2X" or "48 divided by 2 times X"?
48 divided by 2X results in 2. 48 divided by 2, times X results in 288. It's all about how you read it, there is no correct answer because it is written wrong.

Both answers are right because the syntax is ambiguous. Rules of mathematics don't account for ambiguous syntax.

Edit: My first post and I was ninja'd. Hah, ouch. =)

[Edited by Paper_Masochist, 4/15/2011 5:57:03 AM]

Yeah it depends on how you read it, But tell Neo this because he said that we can't say both answer are right, it's "mathematically" wrong.
Y U NO TELL US THE ANSWER

@Latios_power
I am sure that scientific calculators do not know what even means "order of operations". .
Think the problem like this:
48/2(9+3)=
48/2*18=
48*0.5*18=
288
Do i have something wrong?
Division is an inverse multiplication, is it?

You're perfectly correct (aside from the 18), however the confusion here is with the brackets.

In my country, and apparently plenty of others, when we have a number like 2(9+3) we do something called expand the brackets*. So to people in Australia/other countries the sum would be understood as:

48/(2x(9+3))
=2

Which is why I feel so smug right now, as your syntax for the sum I interpreted is ugly, meanwhile our syntax for the way you interpret it:

48/2x(9+3)

Is fine.

*www.teacherschoice.com.au/maths_library/algebra/alg_2.htm

[Edited by Paper_Masochist, 4/17/2011 3:04:04 AM]

Back to this again.

I asked my mathematics professor (Ph.D. in mathematics). He says the answer is 288 becaues the divisor of the division problem is always the length of one real number unless specificed by a sub-equation completely encased in parenthesis/brackets (with the open parenthesis/bracket occuring immediately after the division symbol).

48/2(3+9) = 288
48/[2(3+9)] = 2

BODMAS, I remember from school in the 80`s

48/2(9+3)=
48/2(12)=
48/2*12=
48/24=
2