There’s no sense in which it does refer to the result you mean.
“a X b is written ab.” Modern Algebra: Structure And Method, page 36. It’s only a different way of writing the exact same thing.
Go ahead and try it out and let me know how you go.
Every textbook ever written disagrees with how you think brackets work, and mathematics has not collapsed in on itself. We’ve seen your Mastodon posts lamenting how ‘university people’ all disagree with what you lie to teenagers about. All of them! Weird, right? What a bizarre coincidence. I’m not sure what would look different if you were just plain full of shit.
“a X b is written ab.” Modern Algebra: Structure And Method, page 36. It’s only a different way of writing the exact same thing.
Every textbook ever written disagrees with how you think brackets work, and mathematics has not collapsed in on itself. We’ve seen your Mastodon posts lamenting how ‘university people’ all disagree with what you lie to teenagers about. All of them! Weird, right? What a bizarre coincidence. I’m not sure what would look different if you were just plain full of shit.