Jim,

This has diverged so far and I've not read every message. But I have to just plain disagree with most people posting here.

-2^2 is negative two squared.. it is not the negative of two squared.

The sign is bound to the number.

What would y'all say if the problem was written +2^2? It's the same thing with opposite sign, it is positive two squared, not the positive of two squared.

>>Metin,
>>
>>> but online math calculator, my math. eng. friend and my daughter say -4... :(
>>
>>They are all wrong. The answer is 4.
>>
>>The unary negation operation has higher precedence than exponentiation.
>>
>>I order for the answer to be -4, the expression would have to be -(2**2) using parens in order to force the exponentiation to happen first.
>
>This is a very interresting discussion. I would have gone along with you on the unary operator being a higher precedence than exponentiation. However, after reading this thread adn the supporting links to the various arguments I am beginning to agree with the idea that unary sign is at the precedence evel of multiplication and division.