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Indices & The Law of Indices: Rule 1

Indices are a way to represent large numbers more simply by using a base and an exponent. The law of indices provides rules for manipulating expressions with the same base by applying operations to the exponents. There are six rules: any number to the power of 0 is 1; to multiply expressions, add the exponents; to divide, subtract the exponents; to raise to a power, multiply the exponents. A seventh rule is the index law for powers - when raising a power to another power, multiply the exponents.

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52 views

Indices & The Law of Indices: Rule 1

Indices are a way to represent large numbers more simply by using a base and an exponent. The law of indices provides rules for manipulating expressions with the same base by applying operations to the exponents. There are six rules: any number to the power of 0 is 1; to multiply expressions, add the exponents; to divide, subtract the exponents; to raise to a power, multiply the exponents. A seventh rule is the index law for powers - when raising a power to another power, multiply the exponents.

Uploaded by

susan6
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Indices & the Law of Indices

Introduction Indices are a useful way of more simply expressing large numbers. They also present us with many useful properties for manipulating them using what are called the Law of Indices. What are Indices? The expression 25 is defined as follows: We call "2" the base and "5" the index. Law of Indices To manipulate expressions, we can consider using the Law of Indices. These laws only apply to expressions with the same base, for example, 34 and 32 can be manipulated using the Law of Indices, but we cannot use the Law of Indices to manipulate the expressions 35 and 57 as their base differs (their bases are 3 and 5, respectively). Six rules of the Law of Indices Rule 1: Any number, except 0, whose index is 0 is always equal to 1, regardless of the value of the base. An Example: Simplify 20:

Rule 2: An Example: Simplify 2-2:

Rule 3: To multiply expressions with the same base, copy the base and add the indices. An Example: Simplify : (note: 5 = 51)

Rule 4: To divide expressions with the same base, copy the base and subtract the indices. An Example: Simplify :

Rule 5:

To raise an expression to the nth index, copy the base and multiply the indices. An Example: Simplify (y2)6:

Rule 6: An Example: Simplify 1252/3:

ndex Law for Powers

We know that:

In general:

This formula tells us that when a power of a number is raised to another power, multiply the indices. This is the fourth index law and is known as the Index Law for Powers.

Example 10

Solution:

Note:

Always remove brackets first.

Example 11
Simplify each of the following:

Solution:

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