SOLUTION: I have gotten all my questions right in the Lesson except for this one.I'm not sure why this one seems so hard to me, I'm not even sure how to start. Any help is greatly appreciate

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Question 257246: I have gotten all my questions right in the Lesson except for this one.I'm not sure why this one seems so hard to me, I'm not even sure how to start. Any help is greatly appreciated.
The Problem: (-3125a5)^(2/5)

Found 2 solutions by Alan3354, richwmiller:
Answer by Alan3354(69443) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
(-3125a5)^(2/5)
= %28-5a%29%5E2
= 25a%5E2

Answer by richwmiller(17219) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
So what did you try?
We can't tell you how you went wrong if we don't know what you tried.

%28-3125a5%29%5E%282%2F5%29
Let's look at the exponent part

we have %28a%5E5%29%5E%282%2F5%29=a%5E%285%2A2%2F5%29=a%5E2

and 3125%5E%282%2F5%29=25
but we have the -1 to deal with
and %28-1%29%5E2=1
and %281%29%5E%281%2F5%29=1

so %28-1%29%5E%282%2F5%29 =1

=25%2A1%2Aa%5E2
=25a%5E2
or %28-1%29%5E%282%2F5%29%2A25a%5E2
I cannot decide for sure if (-1)^(2/5) actually = 1
but if you square the -1 you get 1
if you take the fifth root of 1 you get 1
if you take the fifth root of -1 you get -1
if you square that -1 you get 1
But some calculators come up with some weird numbers
Different calculators give different results.