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Exponents Rule #1

A couple of things about when you can't use this:

w^3 + w^4
This is addition -- not multiplication!
And these are not like terms!

(x^5)(y^4)
The bottom guys (called bases) don't match!

So, there's nothing we can do with either of these.

 

Here's a fun one...  Let's simplify this:     5x(y^3)(w^2)(x^4)(y^10)(w^6)

5(x^1)(x^4)(y^3)(y^10)(w^2)(w^6) = 5(x^(1+4))(y^(3+10))(w^(2+6)) = 5(x^5)(y^13)(w^8)

YOUR TURN:

Simplify     6 (x^2)(y)(w^4)(x^5)(x^2)(y^8)(w^9)(y) 

answers