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dealing with exponents can be
intimidating and remembering how to
multiply divide or raise them to a power
just adds to the confusion but don't
worry there's a little trick that will
help you out first though you need to
learn a story in our story let's think
of the base as Big Brother and the power
as little brother a good way to remember
this is to imagine that Big Brother is
carrying little brother on his back now
big brother is two grades ahead of
little brother in first grade they learn
addition in second grade they learned
subtraction in third grade they learn
multiplication in fourth grade they
learn division and in fifth grade they
learn exponents we'll need to remember
this so the chart will remain on-screen
adds a reminder let's look at how to
apply this story we'll start with an
example of multiplying exponents X to
the fourth times X to the sixth since
Big Brother is multiplying that means he
is in the third grade and if little
brother is two grades behind then he is
in first grade in first grade he learns
addition so that's what you do you add
the powers 4 plus 6 equals 10 so X to
the fourth times X to the sixth equals x
to the tenth let's try another one y to
the eighth divided by y to the fifth
big brother is dividing which means he's
in fourth grade little brother is two
grades behind in the second grade in
second grade he learned subtraction so
that's what you do
you subtract the powers eight minus five
equals three so Y to the eighth divided
by y to the fifth equals y to the third
how about when you raise a power to a
power such as X to the third raised to
the fourth power
well since big brother learns exponents
in fifth grade that would mean little
brother is in third grade where he
learns multiplication so you multiply
them three times four equals 12 so X to
the third raised to the fourth power
equals x to the 12th remember in order
to perform these operations the base has
to be the same however if they are this
trick will work whenever you are
multiplying dividing or raising
exponents to a power
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