>>>-2**2
>>>
>>>what the answer... I lost my bet with my secondary schoolgirl daughter... :(
>>
>>If it reads the way I think it does, I'd say 4.
>
>VFP says 4 but online math calculators and mine math engineer friend says -4 and unfortunately my little daughter says -4 too...

So that doesn't read as "negative two to the power of two"? If it does, then I'd sure like an explanation of the result being -4.