The number 3 is the exponent, also called the power. The x is called the base.

The exponent tells how many times the base is to be multiplied by itself.

That’s why you can say and why, in general,

the formula is correct. Explain why that formula works. ______________________________________________________________________________________

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Now, suppose you have This you can write as . That seems right. Now how about using that other way of simplifying: . This gives you . This shows that .

Explain why this makes sense to you or explain why you have a problem with it. __________________

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Using this technique, you can show that and and in general, .

Rewrite as an expression that does not look like a fraction. ______________________________

Now, recall that . Similarly, . So, it is possible to rewrite as . So, the following statement is also true: .

Rewrite the following expressions so that they do not look like fractions.

Now, for something that seems completely different, but really isn’t.

= 3 because (3)(3) = 9_____________________________________________

= because

because

because

because

Now, simplify these expressions.

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