The people giving different answers are interpreting the given expression using different rules.
What’s universal is the fact that everyone who uses the same rules of interpretation when reading the given expression will give the same answer when asked what number the expression evaluates to.
I’d like to see someone split the atom or make a simple machine thinking 8+4=84. Calvin is wrong, his dad is right.
And this is all going on over in GQ also. Calvin is right. His dad is right too, but only in that dull dad-like way. Calvin is right in that way that leads to the understanding of the universe.