ODF specifies that the expression a^b has to be calculated as POWER(a;b), see 6.4.6 Infix Operator "^", part 4 ODF 1.4. https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.4/cs01/part4-formula/OpenDocument-v1.4-cs01-part4-formula.html#Infix_Operator_POW This information is missing in the help. In LibreOffice, both the infix-operator "^" and the POWER function use the implementation ScInterpreter::ScPow() in /sc/source/core/tool/interpr5.cxx Negative base and fractional exponents are allowed, but the behavior for a negative base is implementation-defined. The help for POWER has the needed info, though not really exact, but the user learns that he has to be careful. For the infix operator "^", info about a negative base is missing. So perhaps add to the infix operator a sentence: The expression a^b is calculated the same way as POWER(a,b). Or write a similar info about negative base and fractional exponents for the infix operator "^". https://help.libreoffice.org/26.2/en-US/text/scalc/01/04060106.html#hd_id3155717 https://help.libreoffice.org/26.2/en-US/text/scalc/01/04060199.html To see the problems for users look at bug 148488.
Olivier Hallot committed a patch related to this issue. It has been pushed to "master": https://git.libreoffice.org/help/commit/6031f815c4b10d9c1550a05b4a4258b582307f32 tdf#167992 Precision on exponentiation operator