this post was submitted on 03 Dec 2023
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[–] SmartmanApps@programming.dev 1 points 8 months ago

If you agree that parenthesis go first then the equation becomes 8/2x4

No, it becomes 8/(2x4). You can't remove brackets unless there's only 1 term left inside. Removing them prematurely flips the 4 from being in the denominator to being in the numerator, hence the wrong answer.