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Originally Posted by BabyGirl Rosie  I had fun with this in my classroom today. I had my 8th grade Algebra students work it. These are advanced students. Three answers came out of the problem. 288, 2, and 8 1/3. Hmmmmmm. My calculator, the TI 73, shows 288. I said in my post that it is 288 if you follow order of operations. (And I teach math. lol). I asked math teacher friends. They got 288. BUT if you look at it as a fraction bar for division it creates a whole different situation. Because fraction bars fall under the grouping symbols. If you use the fraction bar, the answer is 2. I have taught order of operations for years. Never had a problem stump me like this. I think it depends on how you write it. Fraction bar is 2 for sure. Urrrrrgghh this will end up driving me nuts! 
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Back in the olden days we were taught to do the insides of parenthesis first, and then do what ever it takes to get rid of parenthesis. In other words, add 9+3 first and you still have parenthesis.
48÷2(12)
In order to get rid of that parenthesis you have to multiply, after you multiply, you can get rid of parenthesis and you have a problem that can be worked from left to right.
48 ÷ 24
Do they still teach that rule about parenthesis?