Question

How do you simplify `3^-1*5^-2`?

Answer 1

See full explanation of the simplification process below

Explanation:

To simplify this expression we first need to use one of the rules for exponents:

`color(red)(x^a = 1/x^(-a))`

Using this rule we can rewrite this problem as:

`1/(3^(- -1)* 5^(- -2)) = 1/(3^1*5^2)`

We know `x^1 = x` so we can rewrite this as"

`1/(3 xx 5 xx 5) = 1/75`