When we talk about exponentiation, raising a number to a power means multiplying that number by itself a certain number of times. A negative exponent, like -7, has a special meaning.
Specifically, 10 to the power of negative 7, written as 10^-7, is equivalent to the fraction 1 / 10^7.
This means that instead of performing the operation of multiplying 10 by itself seven times, we are taking the reciprocal of that result.
To break it down further:
10^7is equal to10,000,000(which is 10 multiplied by itself 7 times).- Therefore,
10^-7can be calculated as:
10^-7 = 1 / 10^7 = 1 / 10,000,000
This results in:
- 10 to the power of negative 7 =
0.0000001
In summary, when you see a negative exponent, just remember it means that you are dealing with a fraction. 10^-7 is a very small number, specifically 0.0000001.