Final answer:
The expression (double) (24 / ((double) 5)) evaluates to 4.8. This is because the explicit cast to double for the number 5 ensures that floating-point division is used, resulting in a decimal number.
Step-by-step explanation:
When evaluating the expression (double) (24 / ((double) 5)), we must first address the type casting to double, which is present in the expression. This casting to double suggests that the division should be treated as floating-point division rather than integer division. Therefore, the number 5 is first cast to a double before the division takes place, which means the result of the division will be calculated using floating-point arithmetic, resulting in a decimal number rather than an integer.
Next, we perform the division: 24 divided by 5 as a floating-point operation equals 4.8. The entire expression is then cast to a double again, although this is not necessary since the result is already a double. Therefore, the final result of the expression is 4.8, matching option f.
It's important to understand that when performing arithmetic operations in programming or mathematics, the data types of the operands can affect the result. In this case, using a double for division ensures that we get a precise decimal result instead of an approximation or truncation that could occur if only integers were used.