Exponents and Parentheses Can $(-25^{44})$ be rewritten as $(-1) (25)^{44}$?
Will the exponent 44 affect the (-1) because of the parentheses?
Or does the 44 need to be inside the parentheses:  $(-1) (25^{44})$?
Thank you!
 A: From the OP's comments, I understand the question to be what the meaning of the notation $(-1)(25)^{44}$ should be, rather than a question about the meaning of $-25^{44}$.
With standard notation, powers bind tighter than multiplication. Think, for example, of the general form of a second degree polynomial:
$$ ax^2 + bx + c $$
This means $a\cdot(x^2)+\cdots$ rather than $(a\cdot x)^2+\cdots$.
It works the same with $(-1)$ instead of $a$ and $(25)$ instead of $x$:
$$ (-1)(25)^{44} \quad\text{means}\quad (-1)\cdot(25^{44})$$
(which is of course the same as $-25^{44}$).
A: These two are different
$\begin{align}
(-25^{44})&= -25^{44}\\
(-25)^{44}&= 25^{44}
\end{align}$
in the later case,   $-1$ will be effected.
A: It all depends on how you write it.  The way you wrote it,  $(-25^{44}$),  how our order of operations go is first look for parenthesis,  resolve what's in parenthesis....but since the parenthesis is around EVERYTHING,  it is meaningless.  IE
$$(blah)=blah$$
or in this case
$$(-25^{44})=-25^{44}$$
In usual written mathematics,  the $-$ in front of a number is taken as "Multiply by negative 1",  so since exponents go first,  it is indeed equivalent to
$$-(1)\cdot 25^{44}$$
Note that in SOME computer programming/scripting languages, the order is reversed, so context is important. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_operations#Unary_minus_sign
In order for the $-$ to be part of the exponent, we would need the exponent to have been OUTSIDE the parenthesis
$$(-25)^{44}=(-1)^{44}\cdot 25^{44}=25^{44}$$
