November 12, 2009
No CommentsHow to Solve Negative Exponents
Description
A detailed tutorial on how to solve negative exponents. Step by step tutorial including several examples of solving negative exponents for reference.
Overview
An exponent is a number representing how many times you multiply the base – the number the exponent is on – by itself. Which is why negative exponents are so confusing – how can you multiply something by itself a negative number of times? The easiest way to think of a negative exponent, is that if you take away the negative sign and put the base and exponent under the number 1 (like as a fraction), you are saying the same thing! A negative exponent simply needs to be moved to the denominator (or the numerator, if it is in the denominator) to make it a positive exponent. This can be tricky when there are other numbers or expressions found in the same fraction, but not impossible.
