I really just need to stop posting from my phone.  Never comes out the way I wanted it too.  My TI 89 agrees with all the above.  I was mostly going for that I can see how it can be easily confused, thus writing the equation in the alternative forms above would make sure sense.

here's the link for pemdas.. if it is div and multi or add and sub..... it would be left to right...
http://www.mathsisfun.com/operation-order-pemdas.html

I agree that the answer is 288, but the wanted answer is 2. Otherwise, they would have put a multiplication symbol in...

this sums it up.

no more argument! LOL

http://www.mathway.com/answer.aspx?p=basi?p=48SMB102%283+9%29?p=2?p=?p=?p=?p=?p=0?p=?p=0?p=?p=?p=Simplify

It's 288, but of course you can define alternative notation and declare it to be another answer if you want. This problem is nowhere near a dispute in academic mathematics.

I believe the answer is 2. My math teacher once told me that an X(Y) bond is of a higher priority than an X*Y. I believe he said that on the PEMDAS, X(Y) is somewhere between parentheses and multiplication. He wasn't the smartest Mathemagician, but I thought that this made sense.

If you use the distrubutive property, the answer is two. And I don't think properties will disturb the solution, right?

48 / 2(3 + 9)
48 / (6 +18) - You could distribute the 2 here.
48 / 24
2

I think it makes sense. You can't just break the bond between the 2 and the ( ). I've never seen the bond broken like that before. But im not sure, it might be 288. Either way, its a poorly formed equation.

The simple and only reason why there's no multiplication symbol is to lighten the equation. There's no mathematical meaning behind it...

If there's nothing then it should be assumed that it means a simple multiplication and not one that has priority over multiplication/division symbol.

Look at my post above.