2007-02-14 12:56:06 · 9 answers · asked by silverchair 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Other - Science
it all depends if you mean -(4^2)= then it is -16.
How ever if you mean (-4)^2= then it is 16.
2007-02-14 13:04:05 · answer #1 · answered by stardancerpoet 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
16
2007-02-14 20:59:04 · answer #2 · answered by ckm1956 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is either.
(-4)^2 is 16.
-(4^2) is -16.
So it depends who or what is reading the formula, and whether the minus sign binds more firmly to the 4, or to the whole thing that follows it.
There is no problem with -x^2, which is always interpreted as -(x^2). The problem is in a computing application where the very common procedure "read the next item on the line" would grab the characters "-4" as a single item, but "-" and "x" as two separate items.
2007-02-15 09:19:00 · answer #3 · answered by bh8153 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
-4^2 =-4*-4 =16.
A Negative number multiplied by another negative number results in a positive number.
2007-02-15 02:07:45 · answer #4 · answered by Sparkling Soda 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The way you write this down is very important. (-4)^2 is 16, but -4^2 is -16. This is because of order of operations.
Do you remember BEDMAS? It's the order of operations. It means we always do brackets first, then exponents, then division/multiplication, then addition/subtraction.
So let's take -4^2. There are no brackets so we go to exponents. 4^2 is 16. Now we go to division/multiplication. There is none so we move to addition/subtraction (signs are considered addition/subtraction). Now we tack on the minus sign. Our final answer is -16.
2007-02-17 15:53:31 · answer #5 · answered by Ryan HG 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it is -16 because if u had asked (-16)^2 then only it would have been 16 because - had power of 2 bu in -16^2 only 16 has power of 2 not -.
i guess i helped
2007-02-16 22:11:20 · answer #6 · answered by Saajan 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That's a bit of a tricky question, since Excel treats it differently than the standard order of operations would treat it.
Using the PEMDAS rule, the answer should be -16, since exponentiation has higher priority than subtraction.
However, in Excel, a minus sign without a number to the left is treated differently and the answer winds up as 16. Note that in Excel, 1-4^2 results in -15.
The LESSON here is to use parentheses to avoid ambiguities.
2007-02-14 21:01:58 · answer #7 · answered by arbiter007 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
16 IF -4^3 IS -64
2007-02-14 21:05:41 · answer #8 · answered by rui h 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it is 16 because
a negative times a negative is positive (this is the one i used for
this problem)
a negative times a positive is negative
a positive times a positive is positive
2007-02-14 21:04:00 · answer #9 · answered by italien bum 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋