>>13020722>>13020759>>13014552>>13014815>>13020599The expression 8÷2(2+2) is ambiguous, bad notation. No teacher would ask you that question and if he does, call him a fucking faggot. To quote xkcd, "Communicating badly and then acting smug when you're misunderstood is not cleverness." Writing something like that serves no purpose except to try to confuse people, which is exactly the opposite of what notation is supposed to do. Also, this isn't math — it's just an annoying trick question that refuses to go away because too many people have an obsession with minor details of notation combined with a poor understanding of mathematics, the same reason that so many people end up incorrectly believing that 0.999... isn't the same real number as 1.
The symbol ÷ (called an obelus) isn't generally used in mathematics, except (for some strange reason) in elementary arithmetic. As for multiplication by juxtaposition, it's somewhat natural to view it that way because of its similarity to functional notation. For example, in the expression "1/f(x)", clearly you evaluate f(x) first. In notation like 2(3), you can view 2 as being the function "multiply by 2".
At least, that's how I think of it. It's all just a matter of convention, and whatever the reason, the convention happens to be that implied multiplication often takes higher precedence.
