Question 10573: how can the square of a negative be a negative
Answer by rapaljer(4671)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! It CAN'T! The square of a negative is positive.
Having said that, perhaps what you are thinking about, for example, is this:
-6^2 = ???
The answer to this is -36. But this is NOT the square of a negative! The only thing that gets squared here is the 6 (NOT the negative!). It really means "the negative of (6 squared)." So you square the 6, which is 36, and then you take the negative of 36, which is -36. So while this is often mistaken for the square of a negative, it is actually the negative of a square! Do you see the difference???
R^2 at SCC
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