Question

Which of the following expressions is equivalent to 1/a^-5

A. 1/a^5
B. a^5
C. a ^-5
D. -1/a^5

Answer 1

To make that negative exponent positive, we have to put it under a 1. It's already under a 1, but we have to put it under another 1! Like this:
`(1)/( (1)/( a^(5) ) )`. That's like
`( (1)/(1) )/( (1)/( a^(5) ) )`. When we divide a fraction by a fraction, we bring up the bottom one and flip it to multiply to give us this expression:
`(1)/(1) * ( a^(5) )/(1)`, which of course simplifies to just
`a^(5)`