Exponents Discovery

Monday, October 07, 2013 9:01 AM

While doing the discovery activity about exponents I learned that the bottom number is called the base and the top/raised number is called the exponent. Exponents is repeated multiplication with the same factor. The base number is the factor and the exponents is used to tell how many time to repeat multiplying that factor. I also learned that if a variable is being used there needs to be another component needs to be there, that component is called a coefficient. A coefficient is placed in front of the base and stays constant. 1. A base is the bottom number, and is the number that is being multiplied by it's self as many times as the number of the exponent. 2. A power (also known as an exponent) is the raised/top number above the base that is used to tell how many times to multiply the base number by it's self. 3. A base and power (exponent) tells you to multiply the base number by it's self the amount of times that the exponent tells you to. The amount time you multiple the base number by it's self is the exponent's number, for example is the power was 5 you would multiply the base number by its self 5 times. 4. Powers are a shortcut repeated mutliplacation, for example 3^4 is the same thing as 3*3*3*3. 5. You could use geometry to describe exponents for squaring and cubing because when you square a number you could also think of it as finding the area of an object if the base is positive, and the same with cubing but instead finding the volume of an object.
Base 2 Exponent Meaning Value 4 3 2 2 2 1 2 0 2 -1 2 -2 2
Introduction to Exponents Page 1

2*2*2*2 2*2*2

16 8

2*2

2*1

2/2

1/2

1/2

1/2 * 1/2

1/4

2 -3 2 -4 2 1/8*1/2 1/16 1/4 *1/2 1/8

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2x 0 2x 1x x^3 x^5 x^3 x^5 5^10 When you are multiplying with the same bases you can add the two exponents to get your answer. For example if you had x^4*x^3 you could add the two exponents ( 4 and 3) to get x^7. x^6 x^2 x^5 When you divide with the same bases you subtracted the exponents to get your answer. For example if you had x^5 divided by x^3 you would subtracted the exponents (5 and 3) to get x^2. x^6 x^8 x^6 x^12 x^10 When you raise a base with an exponent by an exponent you multiply the two exponents to get your answer. For example if you raised x^5 to the fifth power you would get x^25, because you multiplied the two exponents (5 and 5).

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Introduction to Exponents Page 2