1Cademy - Simplifying $$9^2$$, $$(-9)^2$$, and $$-9^2$$

Learn Before

Square of a Number

Example

Simplifying $9^2$ , $(-9)^2$ , and $-9^2$

When simplifying exponential expressions involving negative signs, parentheses determine whether the negative sign is part of the base. For $9^2$ , the base is $9$ , so $9 \cdot 9 = 81$ . For $(-9)^2$ , the parentheses indicate that the entire negative number is the base; multiplying $-9$ by itself gives $(-9)(-9) = 81$ , because the product of two negative numbers is positive. For $-9^2$ , there are no parentheses, so the base is only $9$ . Following the order of operations, evaluate the exponent first ( $9^2 = 81$ ), then apply the negative sign to obtain $-81$ .

Updated 2026-04-29

Contributors are:

Who are from:

References

OpenStax Intermediate Algebra

Learn Before

Related