BEDMAS clarified

Can someone please clarify the precedence of terms in this question:

3x4http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...a7e578384e.png3(2+1)

Trying to understand why the 3 is multiplied by the (2+1) before the division? Is this a universally understood precedence or not? Saw on Wikipedia that Wolfram Alpha considers this not the case as a parenthesis discounts the implied multiplication???

Thanks

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mahanen

3x4http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...a7e578384e.png3(2+1)
Trying to understand why the 3 is multiplied by the (2+1) before the division?

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It's not.
3x4http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...a7e578384e.png(3(2+1)) ; now it is.

Thanks for your reply Wilmer, that was my first thought - it would need another set of brackets to force the multiplication before the division but i have been marked wrong and my university lecturer in Algebra has told me that implied multiplication precedes the division?

Well.............

http://www.google.ca/#hl=en&gs_nf=1&...w=1004&bih=560