Negative answer when squaring a neg number

In the top right corner of the screen. There is a button that says 2nd.

Press 2nd then press the button that is four buttons further down on the same row of buttons.

You're not calculating the square of a negative number, you're calculating the negative of a square. You need to use parenthesis to indicate the square of a negative number.

You're calculating -(3^2), not (-3)^2.

To calculate the latter: ( (-) 3 ) x^2 =

The square root of a negative number is an imaginary number, and the TI-30XA does not deal with imaginary numbers.

However, the square root of -x is equal to i times the square root of x. So, to calculate the square root of -4, for example, press 4 square_root = and read 2. Thus the square root of -4 is 2i.

Actually, you're negating a square, not squaring a negative. When you put in -x^2, it's getting calculated as -(x^2). In order to square a negative number, use parentheses and calculate it as (-x)^2.

Also, make sure you're using the +- key to the right of th decimal point instead of the - key when entering the negative number.

You're not squaring a negative number, you're negating a square. What you need to do is calculate (-2)^2 instead of the -(2^2) you're now calculating.

If you want the answer in rectangular form, set MODE a+bi and tap ENTER and QUIT. Tap square root sign, tap (-)4 and close the parenthesis and tap ENTER. The answer is shown as 2i.
If you want the answer in polar form, set MODE to re^xi and and DEGREE. Tap ENTER and QUIT. Tap the square root sign, tap (-)4, close the parenthesis, and tap ENTER. The answer shown is 2e^90i. (2 at ninety degrees). If you selected RADIAN mode, the answer would be 2e^1.57i (2 at 1.57 radians; or 2 at pi/2 radians)

when you type -2 imagine your calculator doing the equation: -1 x 2. The - sign actually stands for a -1 so when you do -2 squared your calculator is simply following order of operations. It first squares the 2 making it 4, then it multiplies the negative making it -4. In order to get around this you must use parenthese. (-2)^2.

Hope this helped

Your calculator will square a number before it applies the negative sign, so what you're actually doing is squaring 2, then applying the - sign to your answer. You need to put the -2 in parenthesis, so (-2)^2. That will give you 4. Hope this helps!

The calculator cannot do that natively. There may be a program that you can drop onto your calculator to do it though.

http://www.ticalc.org/pub/85/basic/math/
has a ton of stuff... I saw two programs that sounded like it would do what you wanted... but I don't have an 85 to test it on so sorry if they don't...

Ones I saw are "alghelp.zip" and "algef85.zip"

-Saik0Shinigami

U cant.
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