Diego is participating in a cooking competition in which the judges rate performance for various criteria using fractions between −1 and 2. The scores for four competitors are shown. 18, −14, 112, −34

An is a number that is written without a component. it is a number that is either or . an exponent is a or a number that another number is being to. the number that is being raised to a is called the . the or power tells you how many times to the base by . if an exponent is fractional then ask yourself the question: what when multiplied by itself a certain number of times will equal the number?