Negative Exponents

11/26/2012

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     Today, I get to blog about how when a number not equal to 0, raised to a negative power is less than 1 but not a negative. Well, when you see a minus sign it can mean multiple things like subtract or negative or sometimes divide. In this case, it's a divide symbol. If you see a 2 and then a -2 as the exponent, or the little number in the big 2's corner, that means instead of multiply 2 by 2... divide 2 by 2. Right now, it sounds a little tricky, and at first it will be. Think about this, there is a 3 and a -2 as the exponent. What do you do?! Divide! You would divide 3 by 3! The only time you would multiply a number by itself would be if the exponent is positive! Like 2 and a small 2 in its corner. Where the exponent (2) is a postive number, you would multiply.
     See! Really, exponents, even when they are negatives, are easy! As long as you know the rules and how to "handle" them, you've got this down! So if you ever see this "trouble" in your math class... you know what to do!!!
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Exponents

11/5/2012

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   We see exponents a lot of the time used in mathmatical equations. Exponents are the little numbers in the upper right hand corner of other numbers. Sometimes we see a 2 and another 2 in the big 2's corner. That means we take the larger 2 and multiply it 2 times by itself. So... 2 x 2 = 4. What if you saw a 2 and a 3 in its corner? Same thing, just you would multiply the   2   3 times by itself. So... 2 x 2 x 2 = 8. When we see a 2 in a numbers "corner or space" we call it "squared." So when you see a 2 in a number's corner that basically is " 2 Squared."  When you see a 3 in a number's "corner or space" that means cubed, "2 Cubed"  
    Exponents are sometimes hard to understand because peole think the exponent is the number you multiply with the "big" number. That's not true! Don't believe it! The exponent is the how many times you are going to multiply the number against itself. See?! This is a lot easier than people make it look! So work hard and practice those silly exponents!
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