That's the way my mind sees it. That's the way we used to write it. I wish the computer allowed me to easily type it!
The backslash is used to denote division not to make a fraction out of the problem. I have to use the backslash as my keyboard doesn’t have the division symbol.
__48__
2(9 + 3)
I saw it this way first also. It didn’t hit me quite right, however, so I went back to remind myself of the precedence rules. Those who get 2 are seeing 48/(2(9+3)), which is how it would be typed into the computer. Whoever suggested thinking of 48/2 as the coefficient of (9+3) had a good idea. The expression isn’t evaluated that way, but the grouping helps to see how the rules should be applied.
48/2(9+3) = (48/2)(9+3)
Distributing the (48/2) gives 216 * 72 = 288.
Or evaluating the original expression directly:
48/2(9+3) = 48/2(12) = 24(12) = 288