Embarrassed to ask

[Thomas Radtke]

(07-16-2014 01:48 AM)lrdheat Wrote:  Why is -8^(2/3)=-4 instead of 4?

It is a convention to have the unary minus as a shortcut for (your example) 0-8^(2/3). So, a written negative number is not atomic, nor does the unary minus have a priority different from the binary minus. This is strange enough to have many people fall for expectations like yours.