Arithmetic of Computers

Lesson 5

Coefficients

New names for old

Page 161

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Your answer :

10^− 1 = − 10¹.

Maybe you’ve been thinking about other things since you studied negative exponents. Let’s take another look at them.

In Lesson 3 we developed the following definition of negative exponents:

b^− n = (1)/(bⁿ).

For example,

2^− 3 = (1)/(2³), 5^− 1 = (1)/(5¹), 10^− 3 = (1)/(10³)

and so on. If you have forgotten about this definition of negative exponents, we strongly suggest that you review Lesson 3 at this point. If you were just not paying attention when you chose this answer, return to Page 157 and pick the right answer this time.