math question floating around the web

After reading the thread about the 2 coins I decided to post this. Ths question as been floating around the web and people are getting HEATED about it LOL

First off there is no right answer.

48/2(9+3)=?

I have read thinks online saying the MIT math department thinks the answer is 288 and the Harvard math department thinks the answer is 2 LOL

The problem is NO one would write this expression by hand this way. But today with in line expressions so common because of computers you will start running into problems like this.

If I had to throw in my two cents, I think its 2. Only because if you tried to solve for x in the expression
48/X(9+3)=288 for "X" to equal 2 you would have to write it as

48(9+3)
---------- =288
X

And that just looks funky to me to express it that was after looking at an in line expression of 48/2(9+3)....But thats just me!

thoroughly discussed here