Verified answer

The answer is 4.

Try typing in -2 * -2

you should get 4.

When you do the squaring operation ², you need to make sure that the negative sign is inside the parentheses.

Another way to look at the problem is:

-2 * -2 = -1 * 2 * -1 * 2

= -1 * -1 * 2 * 2

= (-1 * -1) * 4

Now what happens when we multiply -1 * -1?

= (1) * 4

= 4

-2² = -(2)(2) = -(4) = -4

(-2)² = (-2)(-2) = 4

Don't trust your calculators on this. You can pick up a bunch of different calculators and type it in without the parentheses and most of them will be right (-4) but some of them will output 4, the wrong answer. It all comes down to programming. Depending on how the calculator is programed -2 could be taken to be a single character, meaning that -2² and (-2)² come out the same, which they're not.

4

when squaring a negative # in parentheses, the answer will always be positive. without parentheses, the calculater will think you are doing

-(2)^2 which is -4.

this is pretty much (-2)(-2), which is 4.

my math teacher stressed on this when we were learning it d:

(-2)² = the whole number (-2) being squared by itself.

-2² = the whole number (2) being squared by itself

4

ti adds the - after squaring so it doesn't include - in parenthesis

surely you can work this out for yourself

what is (-1)(-1)?