“It really didn’t discuss this specific form; however, the precedence rules along with the associative and communitive rules just don’t provide a means to invent an imaginary parenthetical grouping......”
Which is why you cannot regroup the equation to (48/2)((9+3)
Nor can you arbitrarily add a * between the 2 and the (9+3) in order to justify incorrectly applying precedence rules....
The answer, as the equation is written, is 2.
What is this operation called when there is no "*" or "x" to tell you it is multiplication?
Where are these precedence rules given that you are following? I have cited the standard, accepted rules. As many others have. There is no exception listed for "multiplication without an explicit symbol." Tell us where this rule is.
48/2(9+3)
48/2(12)
48/24 [oops, broke left to right rule]
2
You arbitrarily turned 48/2(9+3) into 48/(2(9+3)), which breaks associative rules. You also have unbalanced parenthesis in your equation.
The correst parse:
48/2(9+3) parsed from left to right is
24(9+3)
24(12)
288