Question 254067
Parenthesis indicate that the number is either a positive number or negative number.  When there is no parenthesis think of it like this:  

-2 really means negative 1 x positive 2; in other words, you're not seeing the number 1 right next to the minus sign.  When you add a parenthesis to this it actually is the answer or product to negative 1 x positive 2 making the number simply now negative 2.  

Here is the number with Parenthesis:
(-2)=negative 2     Here -2 = negative 1 x positive 2 so when you add an exponent to either one you'll see how to tell when the answer will come out positive or negative.

Examples:

-2^2 = negative 1 x positive 2^2 = -1*4(here the positive 2 is squared first and then multiplied by the negative 1)  this is based on order of operations where exponents come before multiply or divide = Answer is  -4

(-2)^2 = negative 2 x negative 2 = positive 4 also written -2*-2 = 4



Try this one:  -(2)^2 = negative 1(the 1 is hidden)*positive 2^2 = -4

or -(-2)^2 = negative 1(1 is hidden)*negative 2 squared which is negative 2 times negative 2

Then the answer is negative 1 time positive 4(which resulted from multiplying negative 2 by negative 2) = ANSWER IS -4 

HOPEFULLY THIS DIDN'T CONFUSE YOU FURTHER  :-)