A negative exponent indicates that the number is in the wrong location (top to bottom):
1) If the number is in the numerator with a negative exponent, move the number to the denominator and make the exponent positive.
Examples: 6^-1 becomes 1 / 6
5^-3 becomes 1 / 5^3
a^-5 · b^4 · c^-8 becomes b^4 / ( a^5 · c^8 )
2) If the number is in the denominator with a negative exponent, move the number to the numerator and make the exponent positive.
Examples: 1 / 7^-3 becomes 7^3
6 / a^-2 becomes 6 · a^2
Difficult example:
( a^-4 · b^5 · c^-2 ) / ( a^3 · b ^-4 · c^-8 )
becomes ( b^5 · b ^4 · c^8 ) / ( a^4 · a^3 · c^2 ) = ( b^9 · c^6) / a^7