Help a newbie with a calculation result - Printable Version +- HP Forums (https://www.hpmuseum.org/forum) +-- Forum: HP Calculators (and very old HP Computers) (/forum-3.html) +--- Forum: HP Prime (/forum-5.html) +--- Thread: Help a newbie with a calculation result (/thread-9074.html) |
Help a newbie with a calculation result - Skfir - 09-14-2017 05:24 PM Hi guys. Sorry, I am a pianist, doing math for the sake of self-education. SO I am quite stupid in it. I enter the following in my HP Prime: -2^4 and it gives me the result -16, but shouldn't it be positive 16? because -2*-2*-2*-2=16? Sorry apparently I am just dumb, but please explain. RE: Help a newbie with a calculation result - salvomic - 09-14-2017 05:49 PM (09-14-2017 05:24 PM)Skfir Wrote: Hi guys. Sorry, I am a pianist, doing math for the sake of self-education. SO I am quite stupid in it. I enter the following in my HP Prime: -2^4 and it gives me the result -16, but shouldn't it be positive 16? because -2*-2*-2*-2=16? hi, is a problem of "order of operations" (see here). (-2)^4 is 16, instead -2^4 is the same as (-2)^4 that's simply -16. -2*-2*-2*-2 is seen with *implicit (), but not the power (-2^4)... Salvo RE: Help a newbie with a calculation result - John Colvin - 09-14-2017 05:50 PM The result is correct because of the order of operations. Powers and roots are evaluated before addition/subtraction and signs, You get the result +16 by entering (-2)^4 where parentheses take precedence over the other operations. RE: Help a newbie with a calculation result - DrD - 09-14-2017 05:52 PM No, you are not dumb. (-2)^4 is 16. However you have entered -2^4, which is -1*(2^4), which is -16. -Dale- RE: Help a newbie with a calculation result - Aries - 09-14-2017 06:13 PM (09-14-2017 05:24 PM)Skfir Wrote: Hi guys. Sorry, I am a pianist, doing math for the sake of self-education. SO I am quite stupid in it. I enter the following in my HP Prime: -2^4 and it gives me the result -16, but shouldn't it be positive 16? because -2*-2*-2*-2=16? That result is correct, you have to take note of the parenthesis: -2^4=-16, (-2)^4=+16. Best, Aries ;-) RE: Help a newbie with a calculation result - Skfir - 09-14-2017 09:06 PM Oh!! Got it!! Thank you guys!! RE: Help a newbie with a calculation result - Aries - 09-15-2017 06:08 PM You are welcome, Skfir ;-) Best, Aries :-) |