But, going back to the original equation as 48÷2(9+3) and it gives the answer of 2. So your sight treats the ÷ and the / differently. So, my take-away is my first guess was 2 and was right, based on the ÷. Using the / is a wrong assumption and gives 288.
The calculators in question used /. See the pictures of the 2 calculators at the top of the thread. I can’t say for sure, but the link you’re looking at is almost certainly pre-parsing the problem text before evaluating it, and it’s “rewriting” the problem differently for the / and ÷ cases.
Google gives 288 for both / and ÷. Bing gives 288 for / but does not calculate with ÷. Matlab, C, C#, PHP, JavaScript, bc, Python, and the HP50g all say 288.
What does this mean? Math, like other languages, has evolved over the years. The implied multiplication question is still being asked, which is evidence of the continuing evolution. In the last 4-5 decades or so (and probably as a result of the development of computing,) implied multiplication has come to have the same precedence as explicit multiplication. This is evident in the fact that so many languages and computing platforms give 288 as the answer to the problem in question. Very few give an answer of 2. Even though some TI products produce 2, TI has changed their approach so that newer products say 288.
You are exactly correct and that was the point I had been trying to make all along:
48 divided by 2 times (9+3) is not the problem; it is 48 divided by 2(9+3). And as you see, the answer can only be two.