<PRE><B>Question 1095012</B>
.
Your formula is ambiguous and unreadable without using parentheses.


&lt;pre&gt;
     Is it   1/(x-2)    or   (1/x)-2  ??
&lt;/pre&gt;

Use parentheses to make your formulas readable and unambiguous.



Use parentheses when you post your formulas to this forum.



It is the &amp;nbsp;&lt;U&gt;REQUIREMENT&lt;/U&gt;&amp;nbsp; of this site.



There is &amp;nbsp;&lt;U&gt;NO OTHER WAY&lt;/U&gt;&amp;nbsp;  to make them readable and unambiguous.



By &amp;nbsp;&lt;U&gt;violating&lt;/U&gt;&amp;nbsp; this &amp;nbsp;&lt;U&gt;RULE&lt;/U&gt;, &amp;nbsp;you work &amp;nbsp;&lt;U&gt;against yourself&lt;/U&gt;&amp;nbsp; and &amp;nbsp;&lt;U&gt;against your better interests&lt;/U&gt;.



With it, &amp;nbsp;welcome to the forum !!



---------------
I repeat this mantra to each and every new visitor coming to this forum,

until he or she will take it seriously.
---------------


&lt;pre&gt;
    Once upon the time, when I sent this message to some customer/&quot;student&quot;/visitor, he responded me (through the &quot;Thank you&quot; form),
    asking why he (or she ?) should use parentheses when his source (textbook, teacher&#39;s assignment sheet and so on)
    does not contain these parentheses ?
&lt;/pre&gt;

Good question ! 


&lt;pre&gt;
     The answer is: That sources have &lt;U&gt;TYPOGRAPHY MEANS&lt;/U&gt; to represent the fractions, writing them in two levels /
     numerators and denominators, divided by horizontal lines.

     Such typography tools &lt;U&gt;ABSENT&lt;/U&gt; in this forum, &lt;U&gt;THEREFORE&lt;/U&gt; the customers &lt;U&gt;SHOULD&lt;/U&gt; write parentheses to present numerators and denominators
     explicitly.
&lt;/pre&gt;


Hope this explanation makes this issue absolutely clear.



</PRE>