i am very confused how to simplify this considering there is addition (and not multiplication) of negative exponents in both numerator and denominator.
$$\frac{8^{-4/3} + 2^{-2}}{16^{-3/4}+2^{-1}}$$
Since there is addition, i cannot just do the reciprocal of the fraction to remove the negative from the exponents, so how is one supposed to solve this?
got it from the comments!!! fraction converted to power of 2 simplifies to:
$$\frac{2^{-4}+2^{-2}}{2^{-3}+2^{-1}}$$
then i take common factor:
$$\frac{2^{-2}(2^{-2}+1)}{2^{-1}(2^{-2}+1)}$$
results in $$\frac{1}{2}$$