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Scientific calculators will tell you the answer is 9. This is wrong, because they erroneously substitute brackets for multiplcation symbols. You obviously evaluate 1+2 first, and you come up with 6/2(3). What calculators (and teachers) will do, is change that to 6/2*3. THIS IS WRONG. You can't do this! I'll tell you why. (cont)

Let's convert this to a logical problem, first. Let's say you have 6 people (the 6 in the problem). You have a Pair (the 2) of: 1 Apple, 2 Oranges (the 1+2). Since you have a pair of apples, you have 2 apples, and you have a pair of 2 oranges which means 4 oranges. Added together, you have 6 fruit in total. (cont)

To distribute the fruit amongst the 6 people evenly, you would have to give each person 1 fruit. Makes sense, right? But no, calculators will tell you the answer is 9. How could the answer be 9 when you started with 6 objects? The reason: They falsely substitute a parenthesis for a *.

I don't see how someone could mess this up. It's basic order of operations. If a calculator gives the wrong answer, it's probably because the equation was entered ambiguously. If you plug 6/(2(1+2)) into the calculator, you get the correct answer of 1. Calculators are dumb, and unable to utilize critical thinking. Therefore, it is up to the user to tell them EXACTLY what they need to do.

Well, you have teachers out there saying that "6/2(3) is the same thing as 6/2*3" and PEMDAS states that "If you have equal priorities, you do left-to-right" which means 6/2 should be evaluated before 2*3". But the problem is, 2(3) is not the same as 2*3. Those people are forgetting that 2(1+2) is the same thing as (2+4) which is why 2(3) must be done first.