Laws of Indices

LO: To understand laws for multiplying power expressions, raising a

power to a power, dealing with 0 or negative exponents, and dealing
with fractional exponents.

Communicator Knowledgeable Risk-taker

To be able to To be able to To be able to
explain to their solve problems embrace challenges
peers how to involving and solve complex
simplify multiplication & problems involving
expressions division of powers mixed positive,
involving powers. with positive and negative, and zero
negative integer powers.
exponents.
Terminology

! ?
“power”
“exponent” or
“index”?
(plural “indices”)
4
3 =3 ×3 × 3 ×3 The exponent tells us how many times the base
“Base”
? appears in a product.

! We say this as “3 to the power of 4” or “3

raised to the power of 4” or “3 to the 4”.
Understanding powers
When the exponent is a positive integer (whole number), it indicates how many
times the base is repeated in the multiplication.

5 appears 2 times.

2
?

5 =𝟓×𝟓=𝟐𝟓
?
?
?
?
It’s possible for the exponent to be fractional, 0 or negative.
We’ll deal with these later!

Warning: Sometimes people incorrectly

describe “” as “4 multiplied by itself 3 times”.
This would suggest there are 3 multiplications,
but actually only has 2 multiplications!
Multiplying powers
How would we simplify this? means 3 ’s multiplied
together.

𝑥 ×𝑥 ¿ 𝑥×𝑥 ×𝑥×𝑥×𝑥
3 2

5
¿𝑥 In total we had 5 ’s
multiplied together.

! 1st law of indices:

i.e. when we multiply two powers, we

add the exponents.
Quickfire Questions
Your teacher will target various people. Do in your head!

5 4 𝟗
𝑥 ×𝑥 =𝒙
?
Fro Tip: When there is no
? exponent, you can raise
? the term to the power of 1:
?
?
?
?
Dividing Powers
How would we simplify this?

5
𝑥 𝑥×𝑥×𝑥× 𝑥×𝑥
3¿
𝑥 𝑥×𝑥× 𝑥
Remember that we can simplify
2
¿𝑥
fractions by dividing the
numerator and denominator by
the same number (or term).

! 2nd law of indices:

i.e. when we divide two powers, we

subtract the exponents.
Quickfire Questions
Your teacher will target various people. Do in your head!

100 2 𝟗𝟖
2 ÷2 =𝟐
?

?
?

?
Raising a Power to a Power
How would we simplify this?

4 3 3 3 3
(𝑥 ) ¿ 𝑥 ×𝑥 ×𝑥 ×𝑥
3

12
¿𝑥
! 3rd law of indices:

i.e. when we raise a power to a power,

we multiply the exponents.
Quickfire Questions
Your teacher will target various people. Do in your head!

5
( 𝑦 ) =𝒚 3 𝟏𝟓
?
?
?
?
?
?
Exercise 1a Questions on provided worksheet.

1 Simplify the following. 2 Simplify the following. 3 If , what is in terms of ?

a ? a ? ?
b ?
c ? b ? Simplify the following:
4
d ? c ? a ?
e ? b ?
f ? d ?
g ? c ?
h ? e ? d
?
i ? f ? e
j ? ?
k ? g ?
l ?
Exercise continues
m ? on next slide…
n ?
o ?
Zero and negative indices
Is there a pattern we can
see that will help us out?

0 −1 33 = 27
3 3 32 = 9
31 = 3
÷3

÷3
At this point, it doesn’t
make sense to say “The ÷3
product of -1 threes”. We’ll 3 = 1?
0

have to use a different

1
approach! 3 = -1 ?
3
1
3 = -2
9?
Quickfire Questions

𝟏 𝟏
? ?
A power of -1

? therefore ‘flips’
(reciprocates) the
? fraction.

−1 −2
?

4= 6=
?
? ?

? ?

𝟒 𝟑𝟔
? ?
? ?
?
?
? ?
A reminder of the Laws of Indices

𝑏 𝑐 𝑏+𝑐 0
𝑎 ×𝑎 =𝑎? 𝑎 =?1
𝑏
𝑎 𝑏 −𝑐
=𝑎? 1
𝑎
𝑐 𝑎 = ?𝑎

𝑏 𝑐
(𝑎 ) =𝑎? 𝑏𝑐

−𝑏 1
𝑎 = ? 𝑏
𝑎
Fractional Indices

1
𝑥 2
=√ 𝑥
?

1
𝑥 𝑛
=√ 𝑥
𝑛
?
Examples

?
Test Your Understanding So Far…

?
What if the numerator is not 1?
‘Workings’-wise I usually skip his

( ) =3
3 1 3 step.

2 2 ? 3
9 = 9 =27
5
2 5
4 =2 = 32 ?

Best to deal with negative in power first. Recall this

does “1 over” the expression without the minus.
3
−
2 1 1 1
16 = 3
= =
? 3 64
2 4
16
A few more examples

?
Test Your Understanding

125 ?

?
Exercise 2 Questions on provided worksheet.

( )
1
1 −
1
641 11 3 −
? =
7 3
1
?
100 =10 2 64 3
?=
274 4

( )
1 3
?
125 =5 3 2
1 12 9 − 6
2
8
−
64 3 ?=
2
? =
16 16 2
1
( )
−0.5 3
3 16 =? 2 13 16
− 𝟐𝟕
4 9 5
32 =4 ?
4
= ?
2 81 𝟖
− 1
( )
4 5
1 14 8 3 𝟐𝟒𝟑
3
27 =? −
3 −
9 10 32 5
=? = ?
4
8 27 𝟑𝟐
5 3
8 =16
?
15 Write the following expression without using
1
−
3 1 indices:
1
6 8 =
? 2 𝑥
− 0.5
= ?
√𝑥