This bug has been opened here: https://bugzilla.ubuntu.com/10207

"This bug may be needed to be moved upstream.  When a user enters a statement
with exponentiation using the keyboard, instead of seeing the proper "^" in the
statement, they will have entered in "XOr".  Example: "5^2" entered with the
keyboard will become (and be calculated as) "5 XOr 2".  I'm not so sure that
many developers find this handy and for myself and the average user, "^" should
be exponentiation, not an exclusive or.  There seems to be no other sane keycode
for entering in exponentiation from the keyboard.  Even "**" tosses up a
malformed statement error.  This interpretation of the "^" keycode needs to be
changed into the nicely sane default of exponentiation. 
...
The default shortcut for exponentiation is 'y' (as in 'x^y')
...
https://bugzilla.ubuntu.com/attachment.cgi?id=2205
'^' -> calc_xpowy() and 'x' -> calc_xor()
...
Ah, there we go.  It seems that this is a simple three line patch to
lr_parser.y.  I ran the old "ask 10 people" usability test on what button people
use when they plug expressions into their software calculators and it's either
"I use a mouse" or "I hit that carrot/hat/up arrow button".  Maybe it's
a cultural thing but so far, no one has thought that "y" would be something they
would try.  I'm including a patch to switch '^' to calc_xpowy() and 'x' to
calc_xor().  I've triple checked to make sure this doesn't break anything in the
parser.  Feeling silly for making a new patch (and a new comment) for three
lines of work on such a trivial change.  The patch is against the latest CVS
but I doubt the parser has changed much.
[In case someone goes crazy:  "**" should not be used as the new keycode for
exponentiation for a variety of reasons; the most basic of these is that "**"
does not exist as an operator for most users and mathematicians (unless they
happen to be doing some numerical analysis).]"