{"id":53238,"date":"2026-09-04T14:00:43","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T14:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/?p=53238"},"modified":"2026-09-04T14:00:45","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T14:00:45","slug":"math-complex-numbers-i2-vs-i2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/math-complex-numbers-i2-vs-i2\/","title":{"rendered":"Math: complex numbers: -i^2 vs (-i)^2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2>Tutoring math, negative signs with or without brackets can require careful observation. The tutor mentions such a case.<\/h2>\n<p>\nThe following is by my understanding.<\/p>\n<p>\nI mention in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/math-complex-numbers\/\">my post from Jul 23, 2026<\/a> that, in the context of complex numbers, -i^2=1.<\/p>\n<p>\n-i^2=1 because i^2=-1 (by definition), so by BEDMAS,<\/p>\n<p>\n-i^2=-(-1)=1.<\/p>\n<p>\nDue to BEDMAS, the exponent is handled before the outside negative. Afterwards, one gets the product of two negative signs, which is positive.<\/p>\n<p>\n(-i)^2, on the other hand, is (-i)(-i)=i^2=-1.<\/p>\nSource:<p><\/p>\n<p>\nTravers,K.J., Dalton,L.C., Brunner,V.F., Taylor,A.R. (1977). <em>Using Advanced Algebra.<\/em> Doubleday Canada Limitied.<\/p>\nJack of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\">Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane,<\/a> Campbell River, BC.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tutoring math, negative signs with or without brackets can require careful observation. The tutor mentions such &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/math-complex-numbers-i2-vs-i2\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Math: complex numbers: -i^2 vs (-i)^2<\/span> Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[737,2068,4357,73],"class_list":["post-53238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-math","tag-bedmas","tag-brackets","tag-complex-numbers","tag-negative-sign"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53238"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53244,"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53238\/revisions\/53244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}