Multiply the following and explain your answer:
Answer:
Explanation:
In Algebra, the term “Exponent” is also referred to as a “Power”. It is the small number that appears on the upper right hand corner of either a Variable or a Constant.
A Constant is an unchanged value, which normally is a number.
A Variable is a changed value and is usually referred to by an alphabet.
The Constant or the Variable are termed “The Base”.
Each one of the above expressions is referred to as a “Term”
Therefore
and
The number “5” in each term is the Constant and the “a” is the Variable.
When multiplying terms it is important to be know the following:
1. The rule of multiplying exponents.
2. The signs of the terms
The rule for multiplying exponent states that when multiplying terms that have the same variables, the numbers are multiplied normally while the exponents on the variables are added.
The signs of each term must be multiplied to reach the end results.
In the above problem, we now know that we must multiply the number “5” in the first term by the number “5” in the second term. We also know that we must add the exponents that appear over the “a”. We should realize that both of those terms are positive since there is no other sign that appears before each term. That tells us that we are multiplying two positive numbers and positive variables which gives us a result of a positive answer.
Lets solve the problem (please remember that when terms are enclosed by a paranthesis then that means that you are multiplying the terms and normally you would not need to show the positive signs - they are shown below for explanantion purposes):
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