Step-by-step explanation: In this problem, we're going to evaluate a² + b knowing that <em>a</em> = -2 and <em>b</em> = 5.
So the first thing we want to do is substitute these numbers into our problem.
Since <em>a</em> = -2, we will replace <em>a</em> with a -2 and as we do that, we will put that -2 in parentheses and square it since we have a². Squaring a number just means multiplying a number by itself so (-2)² is equal to 4 since a negative multiplied by a negative gives us a positive.
Now we will replace <em>b</em> with 5 and now we have the following.
