How do you simplify $- \frac{2 x}{a^{- 4}}$ $-(2x)/a^-4$ and write it using only positive exponents?

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Answer 1 · 2017-01-07T19:36:10

We can use a rule of exponents to simplify this expression. See full explanation below

We can use the following rule for exponents to simplify this expression to use only positive exponents:

$z^{b} = \frac{1}{z^{b}}$ $z^b = 1/z^b$ and therefore $\frac{1}{z^{- b}} = z^{b}$ $1/z^-b = z^b$

Applying this to the expression in the problem gives:

$- 2 x a^{4}$ $-2xa^4$ or $- 2 a^{4} x$ $-2a^4x$

How do you simplify -(2x)/a^-4−2xa−4-(2x)/a^-4 and write it using only positive exponents?