How do you solve negative exponents?
Negative exponents become positive if you x^-3 can be written as 1/x^3
1/x^-5 can be written as x^5
To solve negative exponents, you can use the following steps:
1. Rewrite the negative exponent as the reciprocal of the equivalent positive exponent. For example, if you have an expression like a^-n, you can rewrite it as 1/a^n.
2. Evaluate the positive exponent. If you have a specific value for the base, substitute that value and simplify the expression. For example, if you have 2^-3, it becomes 1/2^3, which simplifies to 1/8.
Remember that negative exponents indicate the inverse of the corresponding positive exponent, so by using the rule above, you can convert negative exponents into positive exponents to simplify expressions.
To solve negative exponents, you can follow these steps:
Step 1: Identify the negative exponent in the expression.
Step 2: Rewrite the expression using the reciprocal property of exponents. This property states that any non-zero number raised to a negative exponent is equal to the reciprocal of the number raised to the positive exponent. In other words, to get rid of the negative exponent, you can move the base to the denominator (or numerator if it was originally in the denominator) and change the sign of the exponent to positive.
Step 3: Simplify the expression by evaluating the positive exponent.
Let's look at an example to illustrate the steps above:
Example: Solve 2^-3
Step 1: Identify the negative exponent, which is -3.
Step 2: Rewrite the expression using the reciprocal property of exponents. 2^-3 can be rewritten as 1/2^3.
Step 3: Evaluate the positive exponent. 2^3 is equal to 2 * 2 * 2 = 8.
So, 2^-3 is equal to 1/8.
In summary, to solve negative exponents, you need to rewrite the expression by moving the base to the denominator or numerator, changing the sign of the exponent to positive, and then simplify the expression by evaluating the positive exponent.