It isn't ambiguous at all. Type it into the calculator on your phone exactly how it is written and you will get the same answer as everybody else's phone, which is 16. It doesn't matter if the multiplicands are grouped. Since they are the same priority as division, it goes left to right regardless. The only thing that would change the order is a higher priority operation, being parentheses or an exponent.
It doesn't matter if the multiplicands are grouped. Since they are the same priority as division
Reread what you just wrote and think about it because it contradicts the second half of what you said. If the multiplication by juxtaposition implied a group then 2(2+2) is shorthand for (2*(2+2)).
Type it into the calculator on your phone
"My phone says it so it's true." This generation, I swear.
it contradicts the second half of what you said. If the multiplication by juxtaposition implied a group then 2(2+2) is shorthand for (2*(2+2)).
That's my point. There is no shorthand with parentheses here. The only shorthands in math don't change precedence, i.e. 2(2+2) is shorthand for 2*(2+2) and nothing else.
"My phone says it so it's true." This generation, I swear.
My decades of working with math is why I know it is true. I only mentioned the phone to prove it to those of you who are so confident about being wrong. The developers of those calculator apps all have a better understanding of operator precedence than you do, hence why they all give the same (and correct) answer. And I would bet that I'm older than you.
It isn't ambiguous at all. Type it into the calculator on your phone exactly how it is written and you will get the same answer as everybody else's phone, which is 16. It doesn't matter if the multiplicands are grouped. Since they are the same priority as division, it goes left to right regardless. The only thing that would change the order is a higher priority operation, being parentheses or an exponent.
Reread what you just wrote and think about it because it contradicts the second half of what you said. If the multiplication by juxtaposition implied a group then 2(2+2) is shorthand for (2*(2+2)).
"My phone says it so it's true." This generation, I swear.
That's my point. There is no shorthand with parentheses here. The only shorthands in math don't change precedence, i.e. 2(2+2) is shorthand for 2*(2+2) and nothing else.
My decades of working with math is why I know it is true. I only mentioned the phone to prove it to those of you who are so confident about being wrong. The developers of those calculator apps all have a better understanding of operator precedence than you do, hence why they all give the same (and correct) answer. And I would bet that I'm older than you.