Question

What is the value of (-a) to the 4th power / (-a) to the 3rd power

Answer 1

Explanation:

(-a)⁴ / (-a)³ = -a

since both terms have the same exponent base (-a), we can simply do the regular exponent arithmetic (multiplication = +, division = -)

4 - 3 = 1

so, the exponent 1 remains.

it works also, if we process the exponents first

(-a)⁴ = a⁴

(-a)³ = -(a³)

a⁴/-(a³) = a/-1 = -a