Math PhD student here. The issue is that people are confusing two symbols which are distinct: the solidus (/) and the obelus (÷). The latter is rather obsole

Math PhD student here. The issue is that people are confusing two symbols which are distinct: the solidus (/) and the obelus (÷). The latter is rather obsolete and it's not clear why exactly calculators use it. Anyway, this blog post clears up the issue better than I could hope to in a comment: http://www.matthewcompher.com/posts/trouble-with-semantics-the-obelus-or-division-symbol-%C3%B7/ http://www.matthewcompher.com/posts/trouble-with-semantics-t...