One of the product rules for exponents was used.

Or, you can consider that the definition of an exponent and the associative and commutative properties of multiplication were used.
For this case we have the following equation:

Let 
We have:

By definition, given an equation of the form 
The quadratic formula, to find the solution can be written as:

In this case we have:

Substituting in the quadratic formula we have:
See attached image
Answer:
Option B
Answer:
a < -4
Step-by-step explanation:
Step 1: Write out inequality
-2a - 5 > 3
Step 2: Add 5 to both sides
-2a > 8
Step 3: Divide both sides by -2
a < -4
Here, we can see that any value of <em>a </em>less than -4 works. So <em>a</em> could be -124 or -5, or even -1271293587923857 and it would work.