Lesson 3
Negative Numbers
Real values of less than nothing
Page 119
Your answer :
The rule won’t work in this case.
Courage! The division rule got us through
b0, where
m = n, and it will get us through the case where
m is smaller than
n. In this case we have
(b2)/(b3) = ?
and applying the rule
(bm)/(bn) = b(m − n)
we get
(b2)/(b3) = b(2 − 3).
So the exponent of our quotient is
(2 − 3), which is -1, isn’t it? So just write
(b2)/(b3) = b(2 − 3) = b − 1
as if you knew what it meant.
Now return to page 101 and choose the right answer.
