Why is Excel not doing math properly?
Solution 1:
The -(1/3) is taking precedence over the ^2, so you square -0.33333. Negation takes precedence over exponent.
In the second case, the - sign is not negation, but subtraction, and exponents have precedence over subtraction.
From The Order of Operator Precedence in Excel Formulas
- Evaluate items in parentheses.
- Evaluate ranges (:).
- Evaluate intersections (spaces).
- Evaluate unions (,).
- Perform negation (-).
- Convert percentages (%).
- Perform exponentiation (^).
- Perform multiplication (*) and division (/), which are of equal precedence.
- Perform addition (+) and subtraction (-), which are of equal precedence.
- Evaluate text operators (&).
- Perform comparisons (=, <>, <=, >=).
From Wolfram Precedence:
- Parenthesization,
- Factorial,
- Exponentiation,
- Multiplication and division,
- Addition and subtraction.
For more complex operations, the order of operations depends on the system.
Wolfram doesn't directly have negation, so interprets the first - as a subtraction.
You are dealing with the idiosynchrancies of the software.