>>>>>>-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

From your link:


This behavior is by design of Microsoft Excel. Microsoft Excel uses
an order of calculation to evaluate operators in formulas. The order
of evaluation of operators dictates that a minus sign (-) used as a
negation operator (such as -1) is evaluated before all other
operators. Because of this order, the formula =-1^2 represents the
value -1 squared, and returns the value 1, a positive value...Note
that this has been the standard method for evaluating formulas
since the first version of Microsoft Excel.

NOTE: This order of operation is different from the order of
operation in Lotus 1-2-3.


That recovered my morale. It seem there are more people don't know that basic math. rule... :))