What is the multiplicative inverse of - \frac{z^3}{2xy^2}?

1 Answer
Jan 21, 2015

The muplticative inverse of a number x is, by definition, a number y such that x\cdot y=1.

So, in case of integer numbers n, the multiplicative inverse of n is simply \frac{1}{n}, and thus it's not an integer number.

In the case of fractions, instead, the multiplicative inverse of a fraction is still a fraction, and it's simply a fraction with the same positivity of the original one, and with numerator and denominator flipped over: the multiplicative inverse of \frac{a}{b} is the fraction \frac{b}{a}. So, in your case, the multiplicative inverse of -\frac{z^3}{2xy^2} is -\frac{2xy^2}{z^3}.