BY, MRS. MULLER Negative Exponents Rule and Zero Exponents Rule

Key Vocabulary Negative: bad, not positive, owing, needing Zero: absent of value, nothing there

What to Do with Negative Exponents When you have a negative exponent, switch the base and the exponent around (take the reciprocal). In other words if it is in the numerator, move it to the denominator, and if it is in the denominator move it to the numerator. The exponent will then turn positive.

Examples

What to do when the exponent is a zero Think about it: when you have T/T it equals one. If we took the exponents it would be 1-1=0 and that would give you T to the power of 0, where T is your base and zero is your exponent. Your answer would still be 1. Anything risen to the zero power is 1 for that reason.

Examples