Question

If you have a base with a negative exponent and make the reciprocal, does the exponent become positive or negative?

Answer 1

When you have a base with a negative exponent and make the reciprocal, the exponent becomes positive.

Step-by-step explanation:

When you have a base with a negative exponent and make the reciprocal, the exponent becomes positive.

For example, suppose we have the expression 2-3. Taking the reciprocal of this would give us 1/2-3. We can rewrite this as 1/(1/23) = 1/(1/8) = 8.

So, in this case, the negative exponent became positive and the value of the expression increased.