3 ms·
Interesting. In our high school math class when -3^2 was hand written it was ok to interpret it as (-3)^2. But maybe that could have been because spacing would
by spockz 2y ago
Interesting. In our high school math class when -3^2 was hand written it was ok to interpret it as (-3)^2. But maybe that could have been because spacing would be used as some informal parentheses.
- naniwaduni 2y agoPrecedence rules are mostly a formalization of the underlying basic convention that the operations whose terms are written closer together are done first.
- zmgsabst 2y agoMostly to make polynomials easy. But if we’re doing math mostly on computers, we should adopt rules that make writing on computers easy — not pedantically insist typing code follow the rules of handwriting polynomials.
- bikenaga 2y agoLeaving "-3²" to be "interpreted" according to context is not a good idea. Mathematical notation should be unambiguous and context-free as much as possible, not "do what I mean". A computation involving "-3²" will be right or wrong depending on what it means; that shouldn't depend on who is reading it or under what circumstances. Not to unduly slight your teacher, but it could be they weren't sure about what "-3²" means. Everyone who teaches has gaps in their knowledge -- I sure did. :-)
- Izkata 2y agoIt was the same for me. The question seems to be whether "-3" here represents the operation "negate" or the number "negative 3". If it's the latter, then -3^2 is (-3)^2.