Originally Posted by
IRockTMacs
Originally Posted by megachamploo
i don't think it's poorly written, people are just looking at it the wrong way.
unless the there are extra parentheses to group the (9+3) and the 2, the division symbol applies to the 2 and only the 2.
Unless you wanna follow the rule of juxtaposition, which states you distribute the 2 first, and then you can divide.
That is why there are two answers being argued over.
Since I don't think the rule of juxtaposition is a very good one, and since it is not absolute and not practiced by every mathematician, I'm gonna treat the 2(9+3) as 2x(9+3) and follow order of operations to get 288.
But I see where the "2" people are coming from. If you believe in the rule of juxtaposition, you'll distribute the 2 first,
If you don't believe in the rule of juxtaposition, which is fine because the rule is not absolute, you'll get 288.