Question

How do you simplify `(15x^3y^-8)/(5x^2y^-4)`?

Answer 1

Before we do anything, we can divide 15 by 3 and take care of those numbers. We now have `(3x^3y^-8)/(x^2y^-4)`.

Next, we can use the rule that says `x^a/x^b=x^a−b`. To make this easier, let's forget about the number and separate the fraction we have into two fractions:

`x^3/x^2=x^(3-2)=x^1=x`
`y^-8/y^-4=y^(-8--4)=y^-4=1/y^4`

We can now combine the two fractions and our number together to get our answer, which is `(3x)/y^4`.