Why doesn't a negative exponent make the answer negative?

A negative exponent indicates the reciprocal of the base raised to the corresponding positive exponent. For example, ( a^{-n} ) is equivalent to ( \frac{1}{a^n} ), which does not inherently change the sign of the base. The base itself determines the sign; thus, if the base is positive, the result will be positive, and if it's negative, the result will be negative, regardless of the exponent's sign.