negative number raised to even power

[Thomas Radtke]

(05-08-2015 02:27 AM)Dave Britten Wrote:  I find it much more elegant to consider the negation prefix as an inseparable part of the number [...]

It isn't, since you cannot consistently do what generations of studens did before: Rewriting an equation

-2^2 = -4

to

0 = -4 + 2^2

I bet most people would just do it this way without giving it a second thought.