My calculator is wrong!

When I want to square -6, why does my calculator say it's -36, when I know it is positive 36?

---

If you want to square -6 on a calculator, you have to place parentheses around the -6, otherwise your calculator is doing just what you tell it to, and taking the negative of six squared.

For example:
-6²
= - (6)(6)   {this only shows the 6 is squared, not the negative sign also}
= -36   {took the negative of 6 times 6}


(-6)²
= (-6)(-6)   {this shows the negative 6 is being squared}
= 36   {multiplied -6 by -6)

Your calculator doesn't make mistakes, it's how you enter the information that needs to be corrected when evaluating exponents.

Ask Algebra House