Take the 2-minute tour ×

How can I calculate and prove this equation with mathematical terms: pow((-2), -2)=? I know that pow(1, -1) is equal to 1/1 by the way. Any idea, please?

share|improve this question

1 Answer 1

up vote 2 down vote accepted

A negative exponent means taking the reciprocal.

So $(-2)^{-2} = \frac{1}{(-2)^2} = \frac{1}{4}$

share|improve this answer
Thank you very much. :) This solves many things actually... –  Kerim Atasoy Feb 25 '12 at 11:01
Basically this comes from the way that indices behave under multiplication. We should have (informally) that $a^k \times a^{-k} = a^{k-k} = a^{0} = 1$ so this tells you that $a^{-k} = \frac{1}{a^k}$ (at least for nearly every $a,k$, there are problems with $a$ being 0). –  fretty Feb 25 '12 at 11:04

Your Answer


