>>>>>-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.
>
>my math eng. friend says -2**2 mean -1*2**2.
>
>they say (-2)**2 calculate 4...

I'll be darned. That's correct. -2**2 actually means -1*2**2 therefore the order of precedence says exponentiation first, multiplication second. So the correct result is -4.

http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/69058.html