In an academic environment * is not a symbol for multiplication, it has come into common usage in non academic environments first w/ typewriters and later computer keyboards
wiki has a fair summary of what is correct, some will be familiar to you others will not
when these problems are presented the symbols are generally chosen to avoid vernacular confusion, often using Greek or other non ambiguous symbols
no this isn't convoluted or confused, just something most of you aren't familiar w/
when a macro is written for use on a computer you are doing exactly the same thing, ie defining a function that dies something to one or more arguments, similarly all the functions contained in an Excel ss are functions the define a procedure to be applied to various types of data
There are all sorts of transformations and manipulations in higher math that rely on the ability to follow the rules w/ processes and symbology that are not always familiar to the new user.