NO MORT YOU ARE WRONG ... it is an archaic form of the DIVIDED BY sign. Besides
2(9+3) is distributive principle learned in 4th grade
2*9+2*3 NOW muliply first is accurate
18+6=24
now 48Divided by 24 =2
You are missing my point, FRiend.
The fact that you have put the sum of 9 and 3 below the line means you have added the parenthesis around 2(9+3).
The correct archaic form of this is
__48__ * (9+3)
2
Check the rules. The Wikipedia listing (which I have checked elsewhere) explicitly identifies the placement above or below the horizontal division operator as the same as modern parenthesis.