Hello. In this math educational post, I go over working with negative exponents.
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An exponent can be viewed as a number counter of how many times a number is multiplied by itself. Instead of writing 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2, we can write
When it comes to fractional exponents it is kind of difficult to explain what it is. Having
With a non-zero base and an exponent zero the number results in a 1. Examples include
Negative exponents operate differently than positive exponents. It is common math practice to convert negative exponent values into its equivalent value with positive exponents.
Given
The more confusing variation of the above is dealing with
Example One
Evaluate
Solution
Example Two
Evaluate one tenth to the power of negative 2.
Example Three
Convert the following expression into positive exponents.
Solution
With this case, you can "flip" the fraction and remove the negative signs from the exponents.
Evaluate the following into a single number.
Convert into positive exponents.
1/8
1/9
1/4
49/4
Convert into positive exponents.
Thank you for reading.