This is a fairly short section. It’s only real purpose is to acknowledge that
the exponent properties we listed
in the first section work for any exponent.
We’ve already used them on integer and rational exponents but we aren’t
actually restricted to these kinds of exponents. The properties will work for any exponent
that we want to use.
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Example 1 Simplify
each of the following and write the answers with only positive exponents.
(a) 
(b)
Solution
We will not put as much detail into these as we have in
the previous sections. By this point
it is assumed that you’re starting to get a good handle on the exponent
rules.
(a)
(b)
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Note that we won’t be doing anything like this in the
remainder of this course. This section
is here only to acknowledge that these rules will work for any kind of exponent
that we might need to work with.