Question

How do you simplify `(x^2)(x^7)`?

Answer 1

`x^9`

Explanation:

As they are both just `x` you are allowed to do this:

`x^(2+7) = x^9 larr" this is the shortcut method"`

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More teaching!

You can only do the above for multiply. If they were divide then we do something different.

Example: suppose we had `a^4-:a^2`

Then this is written as `a^(4-2) = a^2 larr" this is the shortcut method"`

Consider it as :`(axxaxxcancel(a)xxcancel(a))/(cancel(a)xxcancel(a)) = a^2`