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It seems to me that "$f(x)^2$" couldn't mean anything other than "$[f(x)]^2$", so there shouldn't be any ambiguity involved, but people always tend to put an extra pair of brackets around the "$f(x)$" everywhere I see it squared. Is there a reason for this?

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    Perhaps because some people think $f (x)^2$ could mean $f (x^2)$. This is reasonable when $x$ is some big complicated expression like $\sum \frac{x^n}{n!}$...2012-03-26
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    Isn't the usual notation "$f^2(x)$?"2012-03-26
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    I think $f(x)^2$ just *looks* quite ugly (maybe because I don't immediately see what's being squared exactly at a glance)... That's certainly the reason why *I* prefer extra brackets.2012-03-26
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    @Sam But it's not ugly for a programmer. ;) For me it's definitely $f(x)\,f(x)$2013-06-30

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