Negative Exponents

     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!!!