How can I calculate and prove this equation with mathematical terms: pow((-2), -2)=? I know that pow(1, -1) is equal to 1/1 by the way. Any idea, please?
Negative even exponents of negative numbers
0
$\begingroup$
exponentiation
1 Answers
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A negative exponent means taking the reciprocal.
So $(-2)^{-2} = \frac{1}{(-2)^2} = \frac{1}{4}$
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0Basically this comes from the way that indices behave under multiplication. We should have (informally) that $a^k \times a^{-k} = a^{k-k} = a^{0} = 1$ so this tells you that $a^{-k} = \frac{1}{a^k}$ (at least for nearly every $a,k$, there are problems with $a$ being 0). – 2012-02-25