Problem: Power rules with rational exponents

Problem

  1. Find \({\left( {\left( -2 \right)}^2 \right)}^{1/2 }\)
  2. According to power rule 3, this should be equal to \({\left( -2 \right)}^{2⋅ \frac{1}{2}}={\left( -2 \right)}^1=-2\) . Is this correct? What went wrong?

Solution