Justification of exponent laws

Question

How is the following operation justified? Specifically, what happens to the $4^n$ in the numerator. I tried looking online but could not determine how this was justified. Thanks.

$$\dfrac{(-3)^{n-1}}{4^n}= \dfrac{1}{4}\cdot \left(-\dfrac{3}{4}\right)^{n-1}$$

score 0 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 05 '15 at 22:03

0

The $4^n$ is in the denominator.

It becomes $4\cdot 4^{n-1}$

The $4^{n-1}$ is then combined with the $(-3)^{n-1}$ in the numerator.

edited Apr 05 '15 at 22:03

N. F. Taussig

76,571

answered Apr 05 '15 at 20:29

Henry

157,058

@N.F.Taussig: thank you for the $$ $ – Henry Apr 05 '15 at 23:42

Justification of exponent laws

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