All GMAT Math Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #41 : Understanding Powers And Roots
How can be rewritten?
Multiply the terms:
Alternatively, this problem can be solved by rewriting the fraction as a negative exponent:
Then, we can rewrite as . Using the rules of exponents, we multiply these exponents to get :
At this point, we can combine the two terms that have a base of :
Example Question #1621 : Gmat Quantitative Reasoning
Which of the following expressions is equal to ?
As soon as we see that this is a difference of exponential factors that have a common base of 5, we should ask ourselves whether we can factor any common factors out of the terms. We can rewrite the expression using the rules of exponents to reveal a common factor of :
At this point, we can factor out :
is one of the listed answers, so we have arrived at the correct answer.
Example Question #71 : Arithmetic
Which of the following answers is closest to ?
Here, we should factor out the smaller powers of to be able to simplify:
Since these powers of are all quite large, we can approximate the answer by dropping the two and we get . When dividing terms with exponents, the exponents should be subtracted, so our expression can be rewritten as , which is equal to .
Example Question #72 : Arithmetic
How can be rewritten?
By simply writing as a power, we get , making the expression , or .
When dividing terms with exponents, the exponents should be subtracted, so this can be written as or .
Example Question #73 : Arithmetic
Simplify
Our first step will be to factor the expression:
54 and 100 are our first factors. We can then take the square root of 100 and move it to the outside of the radical. We can then factor 54 and simplify the square root of 9.
Example Question #74 : Arithmetic
and are positive integers, with . Which of the following must also be an integer?
(a)
(b)
(c)
(b) and (c) only
(a) and (c) only
(a) and (b) only
(a), (b), and (c)
(a) only
(a), (b), and (c)
All three radicands can be seen to be perfect square trinomials:
Therefore (since we are given that , we do not need absolute value symbols):
(a)
(b)
(c)
Since the integers are closed under addition and subtraction, all three expressions are integers.
Example Question #47 : Understanding Powers And Roots
and are positive integers, with . Which of the following must also be an integer?
None of the expressions given in the other choices must be integers.
For three of the choices, we can produce examples for each that show that they can be nonintegers. For example, if and :
3, 5, and 7 are not perfect square integers, so none of the three expressions are integers.
The radicand of , on the other hand, can be recognized as a perfect square trinomial, which is factorable as
(we do not need absolute value bars since both and are positive).
As the sum of integers, the expression must itself be an integer.
Example Question #1622 : Gmat Quantitative Reasoning
Evalute:
To simplify exponents raised to another exponent, simply distribute the exponent and multiply the values.
Example Question #1623 : Gmat Quantitative Reasoning
Simplify completely:
To solve, simply pull out as many squared factos as you can, leaving the rest behind. Thus, the answer is:
Example Question #1624 : Gmat Quantitative Reasoning
Simplify
To simplify this root, we must start by pulling out as many perfect squares as possible: