Well, with the way voting is going, it seems there are a lot of incorrect people voting late at night...
This is how I always understood it... The parenthesis (in regards to PEMDAS) exists until everything in relation to the parenthesis is solved. In other words 48÷2(9+3) 48÷2(12) 48÷(24) 48÷24 2 What are all the rules in regards to the parenthesis?
Agreed, but the parenthesis still exists (unless I'm wrong about the parenthesis use) until you multiply it by 2. May be completely wrong, but that's how I've understood to solve it.
Everything in relation to the parenthesis is solved once you have added 9+3. 48÷2*(9+3) 48÷2*12 -> now you go left to right! 24*12 288
lol well i voted 2 before reading the thread. thanks to everyone for helping this make sense. i now see how the correct answer is 288. yes, bleedinrocketsred is correct. it's whats IN the parentheses. when you get to 2(12), consider the 2 OUTSIDE the parentheses, and therefore there is nothing to solve within the parentheses and you work it left to right then. 12 is already solved!!!!!!
You are wrong, see above. Your solution would be right if it said 48÷(2*(9+3)) which is the way everyone who gets 2 reads it incorrectly.
This is my line of thinking, 3rd (bottom) example on this page. http://www.purplemath.com/modules/orderops2.htm I realize it acknowledges there are huge arguments that arise from these answers, but I've always understood it that parenthesis or brackets always get completely solved with anything in direct relation to it (in this case, the 2 outside the parenthesis directly attached to it)
No, but that is wrong. The 2 is as directly attached to the 48 as to the parenthesis, because multiplication and division are on the same level, and then you have to go left to right. if it was 48+2(9+3) you would solve the 2(9+3) first because multiplication comes before addition. But it is 48÷2*(9+3) and the 2 is not in more direct relation to what is in the parenthesis than to the 48, and thus you have to go left to right.
If it was written as 48÷2*(9+3), then it would be solved the way you say. The difference to me is the "weight" for lack of better term of the 2 in relation to the (9+3) 2(9+3) implies to me that the 2 is "part" of the parenthesis. I can see the other line of thinking, and going strictly left to right without factoring any weight to the 2, is correct as 288, but again, the way I've always understood it is that the number attached to the parenthesis makes it part of the parenthesis.
I just read that example on that page, and it is most definitely incorrect. She says "parentheses outrank division", but there is no parenthesis anymore once what is inside the parenthesis is solved (she leaves the parenthesis around the [2] and then artificially claims that because of that, the 2*[2] needs to be solved first which is incorrect - once you have solved the equation inside the parenthesis to a single number, the parenthesis evaporates). Thus, the correct answer in that example is 16÷2*2+1=17.
No, but that is wrong. 48÷2*(9+3) is exactly the same as 48÷2(9+3). It's just a different (lazier) way of writing the same thing. I can see how that throws people off. But that is not the case. Same thing.
when there is nothing left to solve anymore in the parentheses, don't think of order of operations. just think of it as what it is. 2(x) = 2*x 2(12) = 2*12
I think it should be use the distributive property first, then you do the division, then add: 48÷18+6 8.66666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666...
