Question

"Why do whole numbers raised to an exponent get greater, while fractions raised to an exponent get smaller?" I completely understand this and know the answer but I don't know how to explain it and put it in words...

Answer 1

Say you have the fraction 1/2 to the power of 2, so 1/2^2. You could also write this down as: 1/2*(times)1/2 or 0,5*0,5. Whenever you multiply by a number smaller than one, the outcome will get smaller. Whenever you multiply by a number larger than one, the outcome will be larger.