What is the answer to this question? (-2)^2

-4. because you do (-2) times (-2)

Short 4
This question can be written out the long way. That will give you a better idea of how to get the answer.
y= (-2)^2
can be written as 
y = (-2)(-2) 

You should notice a couple of things.
1. The power of +2 means write everything inside the brackets twice. That includes the minus sign.
2. There is an even number of minus signs. That means that the answer will be +. If there was an odd number of minus signs (for example if the question was -(-2)^2 = - (-2 * -2) then the answer would be minus.

So there's an even number of minus signs in your question. The answer is 4. 

The odd even rule is a good one to remember.
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