Thread: Negative Exponent

I feel really stupid for not remembering this... I don't remember how to deal with negative exponents.

What would I have to do with this to get rid of the negative exponent? -2x^3

Do you mean 2x^-3 then it is equivalent to 1/2x^3

Originally Posted by evenstar7139

I feel really stupid for not remembering this... I don't remember how to deal with negative exponents.

What would I have to do with this to get rid of the negative exponent? -2x^3

Originally Posted by evenstar7139

I feel really stupid for not remembering this... I don't remember how to deal with negative exponents.

What would I have to do with this to get rid of the negative exponent? -2x^3

if you mean: (2x^-3) then:
simple rules:


x^2 = x.x
x^-2 = (1/x)^2

a minus sign before your exponent just means you need to write 1/ (by whatever you need to calculate)


ex:
x^-3 = (1/x)^3
25^-2 = (1/25)²
4^(-1/2) = (1/4)^(1/2) = square root out of 1/4
...


if you mean (-2x)^3 then its simply (-1)^3 . (2x)^3 = ...

Originally Posted by evenstar7139

I feel really stupid for not remembering this... I don't remember how to deal with negative exponents.

What would I have to do with this to get rid of the negative exponent? -2x^3

-2x^3 does NOT have a negative exponent to get rid of. (-2x)^3 also does not have a negative exponent but can be written -8x^3.

Usually when there is a negative exponent ,you just flip the equation:
example 5 to negative one power = one fifth
the power becomes positive.

Originally Posted by tester85

Do you mean 2x^-3 then it is equivalent to 1/2x^3

Actually, it's not. 2x^-3 is equivalent to 2/x^3. If it were (2x)^-3, then it would be equivalent to 1/(2x^3).