In case no one has bothered to wiki this subject yet...
Order of operations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
And the part of interest:
Gaps in the standard
There exist differing conventions concerning the unary operator − (usually read "minus"). In written or printed mathematics, the expression −3^2 is interpreted to mean −(3^2) = −9, but in some applications and programming languages, notably the application
Microsoft Office Excel and
the programming language bc, unary operators have a higher priority than binary operators, that is, the unary minus (negation) has higher precedence than exponentiation, so in those languages −3^2 will be interpreted as (−3)^2 = 9.
[1].
In any case where there is a possibility that the notation might be misinterpreted, it is advisable to use brackets to clarify which interpretation is intended.
Similarly, care must be exercised when using the slash ('/') symbol. The string of characters "1/2x" is interpreted by the above conventions as (1/2)x. The contrary interpretation should be written explicitly as 1/(2x). Again, the use of brackets will clarify the meaning and should be used if there is any chance of misinterpretation.
The takeaways are highlighted.
RED: neither 9 or 1 is correct or incorrect. The person posing the problem (not you Vihzel) is WRONG for not being explicit.
GREEN: if there is the possibility of ambiguity of INTENT, use parentheses!