Thread: square of negative number on calculator-wrong

Hi
this may seem like a silly question but anyway...

Why is it when i calculate the square of a negative number on my calculator that i get the wrong answer;

My calculator gives the following answer



The actual answer is 4?

I end up just typing in -2 x -2 instead-am i missing something?

thanks
John

Originally Posted by celtic1234

Hi
this may seem like a silly question but anyway...

Why is it when i calculate the square of a negative number on my calculator that i get the wrong answer;

My calculator gives the following answer



The actual answer is 4?

I end up just typing in -2 x -2 instead-am i missing something?

thanks
John

It's because of how you're entering it into the calculator. I expect you are typing .

The calculator reads this as since it performs exponentiation before negation (multiplication).

What you are wanting is , so you need to enter it like this.

thanks-this forum is great!!