negative number raised to even power

[Manolo Sobrino]

(05-07-2015 09:57 PM)Dave Britten Wrote:  Sure it does. If one believes that the negation prefix is not a fundamental component of the number being represented, but rather a separate operation, then it's not a stretch to argue that the decimal point is a binary operation and draw similar conclusions about precedence based upon that.

2.5^2 vs. 2.(5^2)

Read my post again. -2 is a number. -(2^2) is another number, it happens to be written as -2^2 after removing the parentheses made redundant by the conventional precedence rules.

"To argue that a decimal point is a binary operation", I guess you mean unary, but even that is indeed a stretch for my brains at this moment of the evening. I'd like to see the axioms for that, though.

Take off the CS goggles and you'll see the point.