How to Simplify Exponents & Exponential Functions
Simplifying exponents, or functions containing exponents, is an important part of high school math that continues to be important throughout upper-level math. Be sure to teach your students the principles of simplifying exponents properly. While the number of principles is actually relatively low, a solid grasp of them will be valuable to them in college and beyond.
Instructions
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Simplify exponential parts of an expression after simplifying the parenthetical parts, but before other parts such as multiplication and division. For instance, if you have the expression (2x*6x + 3)^2 + 3*4x, you would first resolve the expression within the parentheses to obtain (12x^2 + 3)^2 + 3*4x, after which you could square the quantity in parentheses to obtain 144x^2 + 72x^2 + 9 + 3*4x and resolve the multiplied part to obtain 144x^2 + 72x^2 + 9 + 12x.
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Simplify two exponents multiplied together (each with the same base) by adding the exponents together. For instance, if multiplying x^6 and x^5, add the exponents together to obtain x^11.
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Simplify a fractional exponent (for example, (x^5)/(x^8)) by subtracting the exponent in the denominator from the exponent in the numerator, In this case, you would obtain x^-3.
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Simplify an exponent raised to another power (x^3)^4 by multiplying the exponent power by the power to which it is raised. In this case, you would obtain x^12.
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5
Simplify exponents raised to the power 0 (x^0 or 2^0). These exponents always equal 1.
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