Question

What is -2 to the 5th power?

Answer 1

`(-2)^5 = (-2)xx(-2)xx(-2)xx(-2)xx(-2) = -32`

Explanation:

In general `(-x)^n = +-x^n` with a `+` sign if `n` is even and `-` if `n` is odd.

So we could have written: `(-2)^5 = -(2^5) = -32`