How do you take a number to a frational power? - Answers

The easiest way to do this is with a calculator. Anyway, the definitions are as follows. x to the power 1/2 is the square root of x, x to the power 1/3 is the cubic root of x, and in general, x to the power 1/n is the nth. root of x. If you also have a number other than one in the numerator: For example, to calculate x to the power 3/5 you first raise x to the power 3, then take the fifth root of the result. You can also do it the other way: first calculate the fifth root, then raise to the third power. In general, to calculate x to the power m/n, you take the nth root, then raise the result to the power m.