SAT Math : Exponential Operations

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for SAT Math

varsity tutors app store varsity tutors android store varsity tutors ibooks store

Example Questions

Example Question #31 : Exponential Operations

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

When multplying exponents, we need to make sure we have the same base.

Since we do, all we have to do is add the exponents.

The answer is 

Example Question #32 : Exponential Operations

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

When multplying exponents, we need to make sure we have the same base.

Since we do, all we have to do is add the exponents.

The answer is 

Example Question #33 : Exponential Operations

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

When multplying exponents, we need to make sure we have the same base.

Since we do, all we have to do is add the exponents.

The answer is 

Example Question #34 : Exponents

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

When multplying exponents, we need to make sure we have the same base.

Since we do, all we have to do is add the exponents.

Since there is a negative sign, we compare.  is greater than  and is negative so our answer must be negative. We treat the equation as a subtraction problem. 

The answer is 

Example Question #34 : Exponential Operations

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

When multplying exponents, we need to make sure we have the same base.

Since we do, all we have to do is add the exponents.

We have two negative values so we treat as a regular addition problem. 

The answer is 

Example Question #36 : Exponents

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

When multplying exponents, we need to make sure we have the same base.

Since we do, all we have to do is add the exponents.

Since there is a negative sign, we compare.  is greater than  and is positive so our answer must be positive. We treat the equation as a subtraction problem. 

The answer is 

Example Question #37 : Exponents

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

When multplying exponents, we need to make sure we have the same base.

Since we do, all we have to do is add the exponents. Since there is a negative sign, we compare. We can add all the negatie values which turns out to be . is greater than  and is negative so our answer must be negative.

We treat the equation as a subtraction problem. 

The answer is 

Example Question #38 : Exponents

Simplify. 

Possible Answers:

Can't be simplified.

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Although they have different bases, we can still simplify this expression. To get a base of , we need a base of  and . Those are two numbers that give us a base of . In order to change bases, both  and  bases must be raised to the same exponent. In this case they are. We can say  is the same as .

Now we have the same base, we can just add the exponents.

The answer is 

Example Question #39 : Exponents

Simplify.

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Although we have different bases, we can convert base  into base  is . So for every  we will always have . We can set-up a proportion.

.

The top is power raised from base of . The bottom is power raised from base of . So now we cross multiply to get . So now we have same base with different powers. We can add the exponents.

The answer is 

Example Question #31 : Exponential Operations

Simplify. 

Possible Answers:

Can't be simplified. 

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Although we have different bases,  is basically  or .

We can set-up a proportion. 

 

The top is the power raised from a base of . The bottom is the power raised from a base of . When we cross-multiply and divide both sides by , we get . So now we have a base of  with different exponents.

We can add them up to get 

.

Learning Tools by Varsity Tutors