Question 231625
Negative exponents mean "reciprocal of" and 1/2 as an exponent means square root of. So {{{100^(-1/2)}}} means "the reciprocal of the square root of 100" or "the square root of the reciprocal of 100" Either way it works out to 1/10.<br>
A more formal way to do this would be to use a property of exponents, {{{a^(b*c) = (a^b)^c}}}, to "separate" the exponent into -1*(1/2):
{{{100^(-1/2) = 100^((-1*(1/2))) = (100^(-1))^(1/2) = (1/100)^(1/2) = sqrt(1/100) = 1/10}}}
or
{{{100^(-1/2) = 100^(((1/2)*(-1))) = (100^(1/2))^(-1) = (sqrt(100))^(-1) = 10^(-1) = 1/10}}}