How do you simplify (-3)^-5?

1 Answer
Mar 3, 2018

-1/243

Explanation:

x^-a=1/x^a

In other words, whenever a term is raised to a negative power, we can rewrite it as one over the same term raised to that power, but positive.

(-3)^(-5)=1/(-3)^5=1/(-243)=-1/243

A negative number raised to an odd power gives back a negative number.