The x inside the parentheses has its exponent -3 showing. The 4 inside the parentheses has the exponent 1 but it is not showing, so let's give it a 1 exponent that shows: Next we will remove the parentheses by using the distributive principle of exponents. That is we multiply each exponent that is inside the parentheses, the 1 and the -3, by the exponent just outside the parentheses, the -4. So we get: or Now to make the exponent -4 positive, we move the base and exponent to the denominator and change the sign of the exponent to positive: Finally we write as 256 Edwin