Exponents Discovery

Monday, October 07, 2013 10:07 AM

I have learned many things about the first part of this activity. The first thing that I learned is that I learned is that the exponent is how many times you multiply the base number by itself. I also learned that when the base number is positive the exponent 2 can be represented by area and the exponent 3 can be represented by volume.

1. What is a base?

A base is the big number of the exponent on the left side, it is the number that you multiply by
2. What is a power?

A power is the small number on the right side, it is the number that tells you how many times to multiply the base by itself
3. What does a base and power (exponent) tell you to do?

The base tells you what number to multiply and the power tells you how many times to multiply the base by itself
4. What is a power a shortcut to?

A power is a shortcut to just writing out how many times to multiply the base by itself for ex. 3 really means 3*3*3, its just a shorter way of saying it
5. How could you use geometry to describe squaring or cubing a number?

When the base is positive, the exponent squared can be represented by area. When the base is positive the exponent cubed can be represented by volume

Introduction to Exponents Page 1

1. What do you get when you add x by x? X+X=2X 2. What do you get when you subtract x by x? X-X=0 3. What do you get when you multiply x by x? X*X=x^2 4. What do you get when you divide x by x? X/X=1 5. What do you get when you multiply x by x by x?

X*X*X=x^3 6. What about x by x by x by x by x? X*X*X*X*X=x^5 7. What do you get when you multiply x^2 by x? X^2 * X = X*X * X =x^3 8. What about x^2 by x^3? X^2 * X^3 = X*X * X*X*X=x^5
9. What about x^4 by x^6?

X^4 * X6 = X*X*X*X * X*X*X*X*X*X =x^10 10. Come up with a rule that explains what happens when you multiply same bases. When you multiply to of the same base numbers your base number will be the base number that you multiplied by and you exponent will be how many times you multiplied it by. For ex. 10*10*10=10^3 because 10 is the number that you multiplied by, so that is your base, and 3 is your exponent because that is the amount of times that you multiplied it by.
1. What do you get when you divide x by x?

X/X=1

Introduction to Exponents Page 2

X/X=1 2. What do you get when you multiply x^2 by x? X^2 * X = X*X * X = x^3 3. What about x^4 by x^2? X^4 * X^2 = X*X*X*X * X*X = X^6
4. What do you get when you divide x^5 by x^3?

X^5 / X^3 = X^5-3 = x^2 5. What about x^6 by x? X^6 / X^1 = X^6-1 = x^5 6. Come up with a rule that explains what happens when you divide same bases. When you divide the same bases your answer will always be 1
1. What do you get when you square x^3?

(X^3)^2 =x^6
2. What do you get when you square x^4?

(X^4)^2 =x^8
3. What do you get when you cube x^2?

(X^2)^3 =x^6 4. What do you get when you raise x^3 to the fourth power? (X^3)^4 =x^12 5. What do you get when you raise x^2 to the fifth power? (X^2)^5 =x^10 6. Come up with a rule that explains what happens when you raise a base with an exponent by an exponent

You multiply the 2 exponents together to get the exponent for ex. What do you get when you raise x^3 to the 2 power, you get x^6. This is because the exponent 3 was multiplied by the exponent 2 to the exponent 6

Introduction to Exponents Page 3