you are correct in that you do distribute the outside term to the terms inside the parentheses. however, the outside term is not 2, it is the FRACTION 48/2 which is 24. so do this instead 24(9+3). The equation is pretty clear imo. Just not how we usually see it in school.
If Lebron puts this formula into a Macbook on a plane from which the results controls it's speed taking off on a conveyor belt, but Kobe puts this formula into a Windows machine from which the result controls the conveyor belt, will it take off? The plane was built by union workers, the conveyor belt was not. Meanwhile, a Muslim guy watches. Discuss.
Clarifying tinywang's statement: He is very right, it's not 2 that's outside the bracket, it's actually 1/2.
I go to bed, wake up 4 pages later...are people still trying to defend 2 as the answer? Breathe in, breathe out.
This is how I did it/would have done it as well. I'm nine pages into this thread, so maybe this has been addressed, but some seem to be arguing that the order of operations allows for multiplication and division to be interchangeable, but I don't see how this can be the case: if you divide first and go left to right, you wind up with 288. If the follow PEMDAS literally P-->E-->M-->D-->A-->S (as I was taught), you wind up with 2. I've excelled at virtually every academic everything I've ever attempted, with the glaring exception of mathematics, which has always confused the hell out of me. This thread is an example as to why.
First glance from lookin at the way it was written, I read it as: 48÷2*(9+3) P: 48÷2(12) E: M: 48÷24 D: 2 A: S: That's just what my first answer was. Reading it again, I can see how it can go either way.
Taking off from a Republican airport (George Bush Houston) and landing in a Democrat airport (JFK NYC).
Ok guys, try interpreting this: 48 x 1/2 x (9+3) That's basically the same as the question. Does this make more sense now? I never learnt this PEMDAS this, but far too many Maths lessons tell me that the above is correct and is the same as the question title.
Not that Wikipedia is always right, but this is addressed in the "Order of Operations" article. "These mnemonics may be misleading, especially if the user is not aware that multiplication and division are of equal precedence, as are addition and subtraction." We all learned PEMDAS in school. Maybe some teachers just didn't stress that you don't take it literally. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_operations
You can't really use PEMDAS to argue for "2" because PEMDAS is misleading when applied wrong. It's really P-E-MD-AS. Strictly following P-E-MD-AS the answer would be 288. The rub comes in because implied multiplication (without a symbol) takes a higher precedence over explicit multiplication (with a symbol). 45÷2x is not the same as 45÷2*x I was just teaching my son something he will learn later but unfortunately he has to learn it the wrong way in order to pass the TAKS test.
