[Measter]

Not even calculators agree on this. Here's a picture of my Casio fx-83ES and fx-83GT calculators giving different answers to "8/2(2+2)": https://i.imgur.com/SsKUQrE.jpg

Both answers are completely, 100% correct according to the operator precedence table in their manuals. I also have a Casio fx-83MS and fx-991ES, both give 1 as the answer.

Others I have are a Casio fx-570CD and a Casio statistical calculator I don't remember the model of, neither of which support implicit multiplication, and a SwissMicros DM42, which is RPN and doesn't have to deal with operator precedence.

I don't even know why I have half of these...

[sbuttgereit]

Looking at this issue and then trying Qalculate! as some of the other commenters to this post have mentioned.... I tried 1/2(-9.8) and it calculated it as -0.05102040816 as I was doing the entry. As soon as I hit enter, however, it popped open a dialog box saying "The expression is ambiguous" and asked me to select an interpretation of expressions with implicit multiplication, setting a preference for later use. The choices were:

Implicit multiplication first: 1/2x = 1/(2x); Conventional: 1/2x = (1/2)x; Adaptive: 1/2x = 1/(2x); 1/2 x = (1/2)x

So their answer is to just ask the user what to do! It won me over with that.

[commoner]

That's the perfect way to deal with this case. I've been using Qalculate! for quite some time, but never saw this dialog because I've apparently never entered an ambiguous expression before. Thanks for sharing this.

[commoner]

I have to say, it's really disappointing to see similar models from the same brand act differently. Thanks for testing this out and shedding more light on this issue.