Originally Posted by Dips3tRydah
People are confused in that you must break down the parenthesis as much as possible before anything. But by using the 2 to multiply the (9+3), you're breaking the rule of order. In this problem division comes before multiplication, you're no longer using the parenthesis as the main law now.
Correct. Those parentheses are used to say that the action inside, the addition of nine and three, is necessary to be completed first.
But once that occurs, you just use the order of operations. No one ever writes 2 x (9+3). The x is redundant. It is known that 2(9+3) is multiplication.
48/2(12) is the same thing as (48(12))/2. There are no parentheses to indicate that the whole denominator is 2(12). Just the 2 is in the denominator.
There really is no reason for the 2 people to think 288 is wrong. It is right. And the only way 2 is right is through juxtaposition or whatever, which is NOT a rule.
This problem is use to demonstrate the order of operations. If you learned this in algebra, there is no juxtaposition rule, just the order of operations.
Originally Posted by Russ tha G
Wouldn't the 2nd set of parenthesis be implied since the 2 is next to the original set of parenthesis? For instance if we just had an equation of
2(9+3) =
The answer to that would be 24.
All we're doing is putting that in the denominator and putting 48 in the numerator, right?
I'm trying to get my mind around it--you guys are saying we're actually looking at (48÷2)(9+3) = ?
See, you are right that 2(9+3) is 24, but you can't just do that order of operators. The 48 comes before it in the form of division with the 2 that follows. Not the 2(9+3) because it is not all in parentheses. It is 48 divided by 2. Then the answer to that, 24, times what is within the parentheses, 12. And you would get 288.