Monday, September 27, 2010

9/29 Problem

Which of these numbers is greater: 5 to the power of -p or five to the power of -q? Assume that p and q are positive integers and p > q. EXPLAIN.

42 comments:

cole christensen said...

5 to the power of negative q is greater than five to the power of negative p because smaller negative numbers are greater

Unknown said...

5 to the power of negative q is bigger because the smaller the denominator the bigger the fraction actually is. so the answer is five to the negative power of q

Shelby Riggs said...

Five to the negative q is greater. I will show my reasoning for 5 to the -p and 5 to the -q. The post says positive p is greater than positive q, so let us assume that p is 3 and q is 2. So 5 to the third power is 125 and 5 to the second power is 25. When I turn these to negatives I will keep my same integers but make them positive. The answers would be one over five times one five times one over five, equalling one over one hundred twenty five. Five to the negative second power, or negative q would be one over five times one over five and would equal one over twenty five. Therefore, by the work that I have done, the answer that I have come up with is 5 to the negative q is greater than 5 to the negative p.

jacob said...

5 -p is bigger because p>q

Emily Parks said...

5 to the power of -q is larger beccause if the absolute value of -p is larger than the absolute value of -q, if both numbers are negative the one with the lowest absolute value is closer to zero so 5 to the power of -q is larger than 5 to the power of -p.

Austin Getty said...

If positive p is greater than positive q then negative p would be less than negative q. So 5 to the power of -q would be greater than 5 to the power of -p.

Answer: 5 to the power of -q

Gray Determan said...

5 to the power of -q because p>q then it would be the opposite negativly -p<-q.

jacob said...

I think 5 to the power of –q is bigger because if you 5 times –p you get a bigger number because p is bigger than q

Daxx Wiebelhaus said...

5 to the power of -Q. Because of the fact that p>q when they are positive, means that p<q when they are negative. So, you would get a higher # if you took five tyo the power of -q.

Addy Kenkel said...

Since p and q are negative numbers and p>q q would be bigger. So it would be the second one. 1/5q

Addy Kenkel said...

Since p and q are negative numbers and p>q q would be bigger. So it would be the second one. 1/5q

Andrea Konz said...

5 to the power of -q because if p>q then when you multiply it be 5 it would be a greater negative number. So -q would be a smaller negative number but larger because it is closer to zero.

Challie :) said...

5-p ( ) 5-q
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Usually when you times a number by the greater power it is a larger number, but since these are negative powers negative Q would be closer to zero. This means that five to the negative P is less that 5 to the negative Q.

Christian Fossum said...

5 to the power of -q is greater. This is true because lets say that p is 5 and q is 4 you make them -p is -5 and -q is -4. So -4 x -4 x -4x -4 x -4 is -1024 and -5 x -5 x -5 x -5 x -5 is -3125.

Haley Nettinga said...

Well let's say that p=5 and q=3.
-5 is a lower number than-3 on the number line even though a positive 5 is greater than a positive 3. So five to the power of -5 (-p) is less than five to the power of -3 (-q). So the number 5 to the power of -q is greater than 5 to the power of -p. Thank you very much ma'am for listening!!
-Haley Nettinga

Kelsie Mastel said...

5 to the power of -q.
Since p>q, that means 'p' could be 4, and q could be 3.

5 to the power of -4= .0005
5 to the power of -3= .005
.0005<.005

mylesszabo:) said...

5 to the power of q because q is greater than p which means your timesing 5 by a greater number

Koln Thie said...

if p is bigerr than q we will say p is 4 and q is 3 that means that it is 5*5*5*5 would bep but it is negative so it would be -625 and q is 5*5*5 which is 125 but its negative soits -125 so therefor q is bigger.

kyle jamison said...

-q because if you take a negitive times a nagitive(-p*-p)it = a positive (p). but if you take the positive timees a neagitive it = a neagitive (p*-p=-p).same thing untell you do it 5 times.

Jasmine Fritzemeier said...

5 to the power of negative q is larger than 5 to the power of negative p. I came to this conclusion by using this expression, 5 to the power of negative 3(3 representing -p) =1/125 < 5 to the power of negative 2(2 representing –q) =1/25.

Landon Pooley said...

5 to the power of -q is greater. If you use the numbers -p=-3 and -q=-2 you get 1/5 to the power of 3compared to 1/5 to the second power. When you multiply the base by the power you get 1/125 compared to 1/25. 1/125 < 1/25.

Gracie Kattner(: said...

5 to the power of -q because the smaller the fraction the bigger it is.

Unknown said...

Five to the power of -q is greater because suppose -q=-2 and -p=-3 then -q is greater then -p because it is closer to 0. So 5 to the power of -q is 0.25 and 5 to the power of -p is 0.125. So 5 to the power of -q is greater.

KW3227 said...

5 to the power -q because since -p is bigger than -q and 5 is positive, -p would be a bigger negative number than -q and -q is closer to 0 on the number line.

calvin gilb said...

5 to the power -1 greater then 5 to the power -2, because 1/5 is greater then 1/25.

Maddie Graves said...

5 to the -Q is bigger because when done, its put under a 1 to make a fraction. When you do that to both, you solve the denominators, but it would be positive then. So, since P is larger, it makes the result smaller.

Delaney Slaba said...

the larger the integermakes a larger denominator which makes the fraction smaller so p will make the smaller # so 5 to the -q is greater Example If -Q = -2 than 5 to the -2= 1/5 to the 2 =1/25 which is larger than -P = -3 than 5 to the -3= 1/5 to the 3 =1/125

Lily Hoffman said...

Neither would be bigger they are both 5 to the power of p or q.So that should be a = instead of >. P may be bigger because it's first in the alphabet. But i say that neither would be the real anwser or that they are equal.

Tevyn Waddell said...

Five to the power of -q, because q is smaller than p and in negative that means p- is bigger!

Aaron Muehler said...

5 to the power of -q would be greater because the higher the negative number the lower it is

Landon Dierks said...

5 to the power of -q beacause if p is greater than q it would make 5 to the power of -p more negative than with -q.

Kristian Cazer said...

5 to the -q because if -p is greater then -q in positive that means in negative its smaller

Unknown said...

Since "p" and "q" are negative, and p > q then q is bigger because no matter what the number is. 5 to the negative q is greater.

Quinci Herll said...

5 TO THE POWER OF Q. because if you assume the numbers are positive p is bigger. so that means if they were negative q is bigger.

Trevor Vaughn said...

five to the power of -q is greater because -p > -q like -p is the lowest because there negative and the -p for example = -50 > -30

Shelby Olson said...

5 to the power of -q is greater because 5 times a negative times a number will make it negative and the bigger the negative number the less the answer is.

Isaac said...

sC5 to the positive power of p is larger than 5 to the power of q. If p is larger than q, p is less than q when made negative. So 5 to the power of -p is less than 5 to the power of -q. SO!My conclusion is: 5 to the power of -p is less than 5 to the power of -q.

Alex H said...

5 times -q is greater because if you chose random numbers like 1 and2 that are negative as the exponent and put 5 as the base, 5 to the -q power is greater.

Gillian said...

the p power is a negative # because the # is positive and the variable is negitive.the q power would also be a negitive #. since both are neitive, and p is larger numaricly, negative sign aside. q is larger so 5 to the q power is greater than 5 to the p power.

Brandon Krogman said...

q is bigger because you have to put negative powers into a fraction andp is greater

Lily Hoffman said...

It says p is larger than q.If you have 5 to the -p squared and -q to the first you would have a negative number which would turn into a fraction and 1/5 is bigger than 1/25 so the real bigger number is q.

Unknown said...

Hi Mrs K