Exponeniation and Right Binding

[PhDoctus]

Please see the included images.

I was taking an online course and came across what I perceive as a problem. If I am right binding inside of Python (performing the given examples) shouldn't this return a different result?

This was found in the Cisco Skills For All webpage. Am I being brain hacked?

[deanhystad]

I think this is an operator precedence question, not a right side binding question. ** has higher precedence than unary -, so ** is done first and - is done second.

This is an example of right side binding (right to left execution).

Output:
>>> 2 ** 3 ** 2
512 
>>> (2 ** 3) ** 2
64  
>>> 2 ** (3 ** 2)
512 

The operators are the same, so they have the same precedence. When precedence is the same use left/right binding to determine order of execution. You can see from the results that 3 ** 2 is evaluated first and 2 ** 9 second.

division has left side binding (left to right execution).

Output:
>>> 4 / 2 / 2
1.0
>>> (4 / 2) / 2
1.0
>>> 4 / (2 / 2)
4.0

[PhDoctus]

Thank you for the help.

[Gribouillis]

Am I being brain hacked?

This image shows how python parses the expression -3 ** 2 (the Abstract Syntax Tree)