>
>-24/4(-2)
>
>Is it:
>
>-6(-2) = 12
>
>Or is it:
>
>-24/-8 = 3
>
The formula should be re-written for clarity.
The normal rule is to first do all multiplications and divisions from left to right (without assigning a higher priority to any one of them). Then, additions and subtractions, again from left to right. However, in this example, with the missing and implied multiplication symbol, 4(-2) looks like a single item, perhaps the idea was to divide first. I don't know about any particular rule for that.
A horizontal line, as in
1+2
-------
3+4
implies parentheses for both the upper and the lower part: the example is equivalent to (1+2) / (3+4). A slash, as opposed to the other division symbol, is sometimes used similarly, but the results can be quite ambiguous..
Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)
