Surely that would mean the answer’s ambiguous, no?
No. Exponents before Subtraction. Order of operations rules.
The lack of brackets means we can’t know definitively if - is included or not
The lack of brackets mean we definitively do know that it’s not included, because to be included, it would have to be in brackets.
I’d argue that -3 represents negative three, not subtract three
It’s actually 0-3. There’s an unwritten 0, just like if the first number was positive there’s an unwritten +. 9 is actually 0+9. All operations on the number line start from 0.
negative three is it’s own distinct number from positive three
No. Exponents before Subtraction. Order of operations rules.
The lack of brackets mean we definitively do know that it’s not included, because to be included, it would have to be in brackets.
It’s actually 0-3. There’s an unwritten 0, just like if the first number was positive there’s an unwritten +. 9 is actually 0+9. All operations on the number line start from 0.
“positive 3” is actually 0+3.