You son is right.

Using BODMAS you would divide the 6 by 3 first and then subtract the result from 33, giving you 31. But the two possible interpretations are better written less ambiguously, IMO, as follows:

Either

(33-6)/3 = 27

or

33-(6/3) = 9

That's when writing it in text, but when writing it by hand or via a typesetting like LaTeX (for publishing papers), mathematicians/physicists would simply make clear which numbers are and are not above the line in the fraction. So in the first case the 33-6 would be above the line, but in the second case only the 6 would be.

Posted By: AstroCanary, Feb 13, 11:03:41