Question on exponentiation

From	Ron Aaron <rambamist@gmail.com>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.forth
Subject	Question on exponentiation
Date	2016-12-18 07:37 +0200
Organization	A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID	<o35791$99j$1@dont-email.me> (permalink)

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One of my users complained that in 8th, "-2 2 ^" gives "4" while python
(and google's calculator, etc) gives "-4".

I maintain that "-2 2 ^" is equivalent to "-2 -2 *" and therefore must
be "4".  But clearly there are programs (and authors thereof) which
disagree.

Can anyone shed light on why python gives the answer it does, and
whether or not I'm just crazy to expect -2 2 ^ to give the answer 4 ?

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Question on exponentiation Ron Aaron <rambamist@gmail.com> - 2016-12-18 07:37 +0200
  Re: Question on exponentiation Julian Fondren <julian.fondren@gmail.com> - 2016-12-17 21:45 -0800
    Re: Question on exponentiation Ron Aaron <rambamist@gmail.com> - 2016-12-18 07:46 +0200
  Re: Question on exponentiation albert@cherry.spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) - 2016-12-18 12:35 +0100
    Re: Question on exponentiation Ron Aaron <rambamist@gmail.com> - 2016-12-18 13:33 +0200
      Re: Question on exponentiation Richmond <dnomhcir@gmx.com> - 2016-12-18 18:07 +0000
        Re: Question on exponentiation albert@cherry.spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) - 2016-12-19 14:00 +0100
      Re: Question on exponentiation rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2016-12-18 15:45 -0500
      Re: Question on exponentiation Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2016-12-18 14:26 -0800
        Re: Question on exponentiation rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2016-12-18 17:43 -0500
          Re: Question on exponentiation Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2016-12-18 14:53 -0800
            Re: Question on exponentiation rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2016-12-18 19:12 -0500
              Re: Question on exponentiation Julian Fondren <julian.fondren@gmail.com> - 2016-12-18 16:56 -0800
          Re: Question on exponentiation Andrew Haley <andrew29@littlepinkcloud.invalid> - 2016-12-19 02:52 -0600
  Re: Question on exponentiation john <anon@example.com> - 2016-12-18 12:21 +0000
  Re: Question on exponentiation Cecil Bayona <cbayona@cbayona.com> - 2016-12-18 12:14 -0600
    Re: Question on exponentiation rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2016-12-18 15:48 -0500

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