This is quite confusing...
I'm helping someone with math. They have a problem, -4^2, and the people we're both talking to can't agree on whether it's -16 or 16. Google returns -16, my calculator returns 16. Google, however, changes it to -(4^2).
I figured it was 16 since -4 * -4 = 16, but I have a habit of incorrectly remembering math concepts...
Help is greatly appreciated. :D
I'm asking, in other words, is it read (-4)^2 or -(4^2)?
It would seem that you are correct if it is written -4^2. That does indicate -4*-4
The Google one would be correct IF there were parenthesis, but we just can't go putting things into parenthesis that aren't given in the problem. Your memory is right...at least this time!:)
Ah, thanks. :D
I understand that it can be confusing when different sources give different answers to the same math problem. In this case, the expression is -4^2. To resolve this confusion, let's break down the problem step by step.
In math, the exponentiation comes before the negation. So, when you have -4^2, you need to evaluate the exponentiation first. Exponentiation means multiplying a number by itself a certain number of times.
-4^2 can be written as (-4) × (-4). Using the order of operations, we first perform the multiplication, which gives us 16.
Therefore, based on the order of operations, the correct answer is 16.
However, it's important to note that when using a calculator or some programming languages, the exponentiation operator (^) has a higher precedence than the negation operator (-). This means that the calculator and some software may interpret the expression -4^2 as -(4^2), resulting in -16.
To avoid this confusion, when manually calculating the expression, always use parentheses to make it explicit. So, writing (-4)^2 ensures that the -4 is squared, resulting in 16.
In conclusion, the correct answer to the expression -4^2 is 16.