negative number raised to even power

[Wes Loewer]

(04-25-2015 11:24 AM)DrD Wrote:  I can't remember any of my math educators ever saying that -2 squared is -4.

That's good, cause the square of -2 isn't -4, but the negative of the square of two is -4, which is what -2^2 means.

Quote:A few TI calcs, and my hp50g agree with the way I learned, though, that -2^2 = 4.

I'm curious, which TI calculators do this? I know none of the graphing ones ever did. My memory isn't perfect, but I used the TI-30/35/55 as a kid and I think I would have remembered if they had such a bug.

The hp50 also evaluates -2^2 = -4. ('-2^2' is parsed in rpn as "2 2 ^ NEG")