What happens when there is a negative exponent?

Thanks Geno,

This post might be worth mulling through as well.

http://web2.0calc.com/questions/indices-especially-negative-indices

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