Question

What is the difference between -5 squared and -5 parenthesis squared?

Answer 1

-5 is essentially -1·5

Order of operations says to do exponents first, so without parentheses -5², you would square first then multiply by -1, leaving you with an answer of -25.

However, parentheses comes before exponents in order of operations, so with parenthesis (-5)² would be 25.