Negative powers

A negative power indicates the reciprocal of the base. For a power of -1:

a^{-1}=\frac1a

For a negative power other than -1, it indicates the reciprocal of the fraction, but the order of the base remains. This can be shown as:

a^{-x}=\frac1{a^x}

Example: evaluate (\frac34)^{-1}

• =\frac1{(\frac34)}
• \frac43

Example: evaluate (\frac73)^{-2}

• =\frac1{(\frac73)^{-2}}
• =(\frac37)^{2}
• =\frac9{49}