Positive Exponents

 

In this video, we are going to look at how to simplify numbers raised to positive exponents. After you finish this lesson, view all of our Algebra 1 lessons and practice problems.

For example:
To simplify the following:
2^4
we have to multiply the 2 by itself, 4 times which would simplify to:
2 \times 2 \times 2 \times 2=16

Other examples:

x^3=x \times x \times x
3^4=3 \times 3 \times 3 \times 3=81

Examples of Positive Exponents

Example 1

6^4

We have to multiply 6 four times.

6^4=6 \times 6 \times 6\times 6=1,296

Example 2

11^2

We have to multiply 11 two times.

11^2=11 \times 11=121

Video-Lesson Transcript

This is a quick lesson on positive exponents.

Let’s look at an example.

2^4

2 is known as the base and the 4 is the exponent

This means that we’re going to multiply the base by itself by the number of the exponent.

So 2^4 = 2 \times 2 \times 2 \times 2

Our final answer is 16.

2^4 is 2 multiplied 4 times.

2^4 is not the same as 2 \times 4.

What if we have 3^4?

This means we’re going to multiply 3 4 times.

3^4 = 3 \times 3 \times 3 \times 3 = 81

If we have 4^3 this is 4 multiplied 3 times.

4^3 = 4 \times 4 \times 4 = 64

Positive Exponents

So we have to multiply the base by itself. The number of times you do it is what the exponent stands for.

If you see a term or variable raised to an exponent such as x^5.

This only means that we have x multiplied by itself 5 times.

x^5 = x \times x \times x \times x \times x

Just to review, we have the base and the small number at the top is the exponent.