this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2024
1297 points (98.8% liked)

Science Memes

11431 readers
982 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.

Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.

Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
1297
))<>(( (mander.xyz)
submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
107 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Every calculator I've used has separate negative and subtraction keys for this purpose. There is no order of operations to follow, it's just a squaring a number

[–] ByGourou 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

I learned negative as being a separate operation where we need to apply the order of operations. I think it was something like : -2 is a diminutive for -1x2 so it uses the order of operations of a multiplication.
My calculator is the official one used in schools in France (ti-83 premium ce) and it says -2^2 = -4 with the negative key. I don't think it would make a mistake in such a simple concept.

But whatever these concepts can change depending on the field, country, level of education. What I mean is : it's unclear, so use parentheses. So (-2)^2 or -(2^2) are the correct ways to write it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

I think it was something like : -2 is a diminutive for -1x2

Correct. Things that are usually left out of Maths expressions are plus signs, ones as multipliers/indices, and un-needed brackets. e.g. I could more fully write this as -1(4)², but that just simplifies to -4²

[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 months ago

it’s just a squaring a number

The number being squared is 4, unless you put (-4)², otherwise it's 4² with a minus sign.