Tonight’s tidbit, as usual, comes care of my students. One of my students was inducted into the sacred cult of the sticky. When a student starts working on the laws of exponents, I create a sticky note for them with all the main rules on it. You’ll have to wait until I figure out how to display complicated math equations on here to see them all, but for now enjoy these two.
- xa * xb = xa + b
Let’s look at it with a and b replaced with 2 and 3. The new equation reads: x2 * x3 = x2 + 3, or x5.
Expanded, this equation basically says the following: (x * x) * (x * x * x) = x * x * x * x * x
We can visually see that the equation is true.
- (xa)b = x a * b
Again, we can substitute 2 and 3 for a and b. The equation now reads: (x2)3 = x 2 * 3, or x6.
When we expand this equation, it looks like this: (x *x) * (x * x) * (x * x) = x * x * x * x * x * x
Again, we can visually see this one is true.
If you’re patiently waiting for the first bit of the number line article, I thank you for your continued patience. My computer had a minor meltdown and is still recovering from it. I did just get a hold of a demo of Illustrator. I can hardly wait to bring Dead Bunny to life!
[...] have a law of exponents that says when we raise a power to another power, we simply multiply the two toge…. In this case, we’re multiplying 2 and ½ which equals 1. Our problem now looks like this: [...]
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