[Tutor] revisiting a puzzle about -3**2 vs (-3)**2

[Emile van Sebille]

On 8/12/2015 9:07 AM, D Wyatt wrote:
> so I 'get' that -5**2 = -25 and (-5)**2 is 25, BUT if you write a function
>
> def sq(x):
>    """ Output: sq returns the square of its input
>        input x: a number (int or float)
>    """
>    return x**2
>
> and pass it a negative number it handles it as though the argument is
> in parentheses.
>
> I find this confusing.  Can someone explain?

the passed in number is a single object.  But when parsing a line, 
"-5**2", exponentiation happens first, then negation of the result.  The 
parens around the -5 force evaluation as a number.

Consider this:

def sq1(x):
     sgn = int(x<0)
     return sgn*abs(x)**2

That's effectively what the parser does.

Emile