why are we doing this. is it a skill testing question? you have to split the prize with us.

 

haha no prize sorry, was a question I found from another forum that turned into a huge debate.

 

I thought the answer to this was 288. My wife, who's excellent at math and does algebra 1 and algebra 2 tutoring, said the answer was 2. Her explanation is, "The way the problem is written, the '2(9+3)' is all the denominator of a fraction, with the 48 being the numerator." I asked her if her answer would be different if the '/' was replaced with a '÷', and she said yes - the answer then would be 288, as the problem is no longer a fraction.

 

I'm pretty rusty with my math, and I went pretty far with in H.S., but that was 42 years ago....

I think there's something missing in the problem.
48/2(9+3)

Well 48/2 = 24
and 9+3 = 12
So now you have:
24(12)
--So what's the operation that's supposed to be done between the '24' and the '(12)' - Add? Multiply? Divide? Square root?

My answer - it's a trick problem.....