Number Properties (Guide 1). Chapter 5. Question #7 on P. 71

[mjharv]

I'm a bit confused here. Shouldn't the answer be 20 (as opposed to -12).

In the explanation -2^4 is said to work out to -16... shouldn't it be positive 16?

So instead of 4-16=-12... shouldn't you have 4+16=20?


(Sorry, and in case it wasn't clear, this refers to the 4th edition of the Numbers Properties book.)

[tim]

No, you do the exponent before the minus sign. 2^4 is 16, then we apply the minus sign to get -16. i think what you had in mind was (-2)^4. When we take the negative first (which requires parentheses), the answer is indeed 16..

Of course, the problem you refer to doesn't seem to have anything to do with the question you've asked, but i hope this helps anyway..