Question

How do you simplify `3^9/3^5`?

Answer 1

See a solution process below:

Explanation:

First, we can use this rule of exponents to eliminate the fraction:

`x^color(red)(a)/x^color(blue)(b) = x^(color(red)(a)-color(blue)(b))`

`3^color(red)(9)/3^color(blue)(5) => 3^(color(red)(9)-color(blue)(5)) => 3^4`

The we can rewrite and calculate this expression as:

`3^4 => 3 xx 3 xx 3 xx 3 => 9 xx 9 => 81`