u/Blackbreadandcoffee

The reason I’m thinking about this is I came across the equation 8/2(4). Some people said it’s 1, some said it’s 16. If this was a divide sign, I would immediately say it’s 16. But because it’s / instead, in my head this becomes a fraction where 8 is at the top and 2(4) is at the bottom, making me think it’s 1. I know I’m obviously wrong, but explain to me the difference this makes.

Edit: so am I getting it right, there are two ways of applying parenthesis here and there’s no way of knowing what the person who wrote this meant, hence it’s ambiguous?