Positive and Negative Exponents

Question

I know this is very basic but I’ve never been able to wrap my head around them. Please help. 😀

In: 4

Answer 1

Exponentiation is just repeated multiplication (positive) or division (negative). Eg

2^8 = 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 = 256

2^-8 = 2 / 2 / 2 / 2 / 2 / 2 / 2 / 2 = 0.00390625