GGG TOFU Blog

Concept and Problem #:
Part 1: Question 7

Type of Error:
Transfer

Description of Error:
I confused -3^4 with (-3)^4, the most common mistake that we were warned of at the beginning of the year. There was no parenthesis around the -3 so the problem was not -3 * -3 * -3, the problem was 3 to the power of 4 with a negative outcome due to the negative symbol. This would have changed my final answer from a negative to a positive, even when the correct answer was a negative. I know what I did wrong and can now look out for problems like these in the future and know how to do them right.

Problem Redone Correctly:
I know that its not (-3)^4, so the problem is not solved by multiplying -3 three times, it is 3 to the power of 4 with a negative outcome. 3 to the power of 4 = 81, then put it into my equation on top of 3^2 (9). -81/9 = -9 and that is the correct answer.

What I learned:
I have learned to pay attention to parenthesis then I would not have made this simple mistake. If I had remembered that any negative # without parenthesis around it to a power is the # to that power with a negative outcome I would have gotten the problem right. The problem with not paying attention to parenthesis is that it can change a positive number to a negative, which is a big problem when you are trying to solve a problem. From now on I will remember that parenthesis around a number means that you put it to that power, but no parenthesis means you put it to that power then take the positive and negative sign in the beginning and give it to the final number.