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What do you do with negative powers?
2 years ago
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Arielle Jenkins
1 Answer
Ante R
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Professional Engineer with years of experience, especially in tutoring
Depends on whether the base is negative, or the exponent is negative.
In case of a negative base:
(-a)^x = (-a)(-a)(-a)...(-a) -> [x times]
In case of a negative exponent:
a^(-x) = 1 / (a^x)
Examples:
(-2)^3 = (-2)(-2)(-2) = -8
2^(-3) = 1 / 2^3 = 1/8
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