Because unary negation is actually a multiplication? And that everyone agrees that 4 * 3 ** 2 equals 36, and not 144? Of course, that's just guessing. Note that 
    echo '-2^2' | bc

[download]
gives you 4, and not -4.

Abigail

In reply to Re: Operator Precedence (unary negation and exponentiation) by Abigail-II
in thread Operator Precedence (unary negation and exponentiation) by Elliott

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