Name: Brad
Who is asking: Parent
Level of the question: Middle

What is the answer to

-3⁴ = ?
-(3)⁴ = ?

(-3)⁴ = ?

Thanks

Hi Brad,

The convention in mathematics, when evaluating an arithmetic expression, is to first evaluate what is inside parentheses, then perform any exponentiation (powers), next division, then multiplication and finally any additions and subtractions. Hence for -3⁴ first evaluate the power

3⁴ = 3 3 3 3 = 81

so

-3⁴ = - 3 3 3 3 = -81

Likewise

-(3)⁴ = - (3) (3) (3) (3) = -81

and

(-3)⁴ = (-3) (-3) (-3) (-3) = 81

Penny