Math Question

[Nick J.]

‎48÷2(9+3)

2 or 288?

Discuss....

[Jon Holdman]

288.

There's nothing to discuss. Its an operator precedence question. Precedence rules state parenthesis first, then multiplication and division, then addition and subtraction. There is an implicit multiplication operation between 2 and (9+3). Within addition and subtraction or within multiplication and division, you evaluate left to right.

So, first evaluate the parenthesis:
48÷2(9+3) = 48÷2(12)
Make the implicit multiplication explicit:
48÷2(12) = 48÷2*12
Evalute the division (left to right)
48÷2*12 = 24 * 12
Evaluate the multiplication
24 * 12 = 288

To get a result of 2, you would have to get improperly evaluate 2 * 12 = 24 before doing the division.