Exponents

What is an exponent?


Well, an exponent is really just a quick way of writing out multiplication.

So, we could write: 9 x 9 x 9



The small 3 written above and to the right of the number 9 means we want to multiply 9 by itself 3 times.




So, what is the value of 42?





So, what is the value of 53?




So, what is the value of 4 x 62?



Some special rules for exponents ...


Say, we have 43 x 42 - what is the anwer to this?


In fact, if we're multiplying 2 identical numbers together then we can always just add the exponents together!


What if we have to work out what (43)4 is?


Well, we start again by writing it out in long hand ...

The bit within the bracket is being multiplied by itself 4 times so ...



This leads to another useful rule - if we're applying an exponent to another number, which already has an exponent applied to it then we can just multiply the exponents together ...