What does 10 raised to the power of negative 7 mean?

When we talk about exponentiation, raising a number to a power means multiplying that number by itself a certain number of times. A negative exponent, like -7, has a special meaning.

Specifically, 10 to the power of negative 7, written as 10^-7, is equivalent to the fraction 1 / 10^7.

This means that instead of performing the operation of multiplying 10 by itself seven times, we are taking the reciprocal of that result.

To break it down further:

  • 10^7 is equal to 10,000,000 (which is 10 multiplied by itself 7 times).
  • Therefore, 10^-7 can be calculated as:

10^-7 = 1 / 10^7 = 1 / 10,000,000

This results in:

  • 10 to the power of negative 7 = 0.0000001

In summary, when you see a negative exponent, just remember it means that you are dealing with a fraction. 10^-7 is a very small number, specifically 0.0000001.

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