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Please help me in doing my homework in math about law of exponents!?

(x^6) (x^8) (x^2)

(-----) (----) (-----) =

(y^4) (y^10) (y^15)

(x^8y^2a)(x^4y^5a^3)(x^2ya^8)=

(x^4) (y^3) (y^10) (y^7)

(-----) (----) (-----) (-----) =

(y^5) (y^8) (x^5) (x^2)

(x^5y^3a^7)(x^3y^6a^2)(xy^5a^4)=

(-2x^4y^6)^3

(------------) =

( xy^2 )

* (note) The parenthesis of #1,3,5 it joins the denominator

1 Answer

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    Just add exponents on top and bottom or subtract top against bottom where applicable.

    E.g. 1st question is...

    x^16 / y^29

    The important thing to understand here is that x^6 is just

    x * x * x * x * x * x

    ... and x^2 is just ...

    x * x

    So when you multiply them together it's just

    x * x * x * x * x * x * x * x

    In other words x^8. That's why you ADD the exponents.

    Similarly if you have something like x^4 / x^2

    it's just (x * x * x * x) / (x * x). You can cancel two of those x's the top and bottom to get (x * x) / 1 = x^2.

    So here we SUBTRACT the exponents.

    HTH

    Try the other ones out and see how you go.

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