Simplify 4^-2*7^-2

$4^{- 2} \cdot 7^{- 2}$

Step 1

Rewrite the expression using the negative exponent rule $b^{- n} = \frac{1}{b^{n}}$ .

$\frac{1}{4^{2}} \cdot 7^{- 2}$

Step 2

Raise $4$ to the power of $2$ .

$\frac{1}{16} \cdot 7^{- 2}$

Step 3

Rewrite the expression using the negative exponent rule $b^{- n} = \frac{1}{b^{n}}$ .

$\frac{1}{16} \cdot \frac{1}{7^{2}}$

Step 4

Combine.

$\frac{1 \cdot 1}{16 \cdot 7^{2}}$

Step 5

Simplify the expression.

Multiply $1$ by $1$ .

$\frac{1}{16 \cdot 7^{2}}$

Raise $7$ to the power of $2$ .

$\frac{1}{16 \cdot 49}$

Multiply $16$ by $49$ .

$\frac{1}{784}$

Step 6

The result can be shown in multiple forms.

Exact Form:

$\frac{1}{784}$

Decimal Form:

$0.00127551 \dots$