Give the 5 and the y the exponent 1 so that every factor inside the parentheses will have an exponent showing: Now remove the parentheses by using the "exponential distributive" principle, i.e multiplying each exponent of each factor inside the parentheses by the exponent outside the parentheses on the right: 1 times -2 give -2, -3 times -2 gives +6, 1 times -2 gives -2, and 2 times -2 gives -4, and so far we have: Now since there are negative exponents, we must get all exponents positive. So we put a 1 denominator under that: Now we move the from the numerator to the denominator and change the sign of the -2 exponent to 2. Next we move the from the numerator to the denominator and change the sign of the -2 exponent to 2. Next we move the from the numerator to the denominator and change the sign of the -4 exponent to 4. Finally we eliminate the 1 factor and change the to 25 We could have done the last several steps in only one step, but I thought I'd break it down for you. Edwin