Question

Simplify: 4x^-3/-8x^-4

Answer 1

To simplify the expression

`(4x^(-3))/(-8x^(-4))`

we make use of a property of exponents that

`(x^a)/(x^b)=x^(a-b)`

Using the above property, our expression can be written as

`-(4)/(8)x^(-3-(-4))`

which simplifies to

`\begin{gathered} -(1)/(2)x^1 \\ \end{gathered}`
`=-(x)/(2)`

which is our answer!