A negative exponent is any exponent that is negative :). It would look something like this …

For converting a negative exponent to a positive exponent, you convert the power ( which is a number written in exponential form, consisting of a base and an exponent ) into a fraction. You do this by moving the whole power to the denominator in a fraction where the numerator is 1. This process would look something like this …

If per say the negative exponent was a rational exponent, or a fraction, you would follow a similar process. First you would convert it into a fraction with 1 as the numerator and the power as the denominator, which would, like before,  change the exponent to positive. Then you would have a number like this …

Then if you were continuing to evaluate the power, you would change it into a root. To do this you use the exponent. You use the denominator of the exponent as the root of the converted power, and the numerator as an exponent of the converted power… this would look like this…

 

You can also use the exponent laws to help evaluate negative exponential powers. A general rule when a base is raised to a negative exponent is that …

 

 

This law for negative exponents is that a base (not including 0) raised to a negative exponent has the following properties…

 

Also, it is important to remember that when you have an entire expression where the bases are the same, you should add them before following this process because if say one exponent is negative but the other is positive, adding them could make the power raised to a negative or positive exponent and if the power is raised to a positive exponent than it saves a lot of steps.

Another thing, if the base is a fraction, and the base is raised to a negative exponent, then to convert the power to a base raised to a positive exponent, you flip the numerator and the denominator to make the exponent positive. That would look like…