Powers, Roots and Radicals

We continue to revise how numbers work, before applying the procedures to algebra. It all works the same,
except that in algebra we use letters to stand for numbers.
Indices
Indices (or powers, or exponents) are very useful in mathematics. Indices are a convenient way of writing
multiplications that have many repeated terms.
Example of an Index
For the example 53, we say that:
5 is the base and
3 is the index (or power, or exponent).
53 means "multiply 5 by itself 3 times".
[Or more accurately, "multiply 5 by itself repeatedly such that there are three 5's in the multiplication", or even
better, "three 5's multiplied together". See a discussion on this at Stumbling blocks in math.]
That is, 53 means
53 = 5 5 5 = 125
Examples of Integer Exponents
What happens if we have an index of 1, or maybe 0, or even -2?
Let's set up a pattern using our example above, so we can see what these special cases mean. As we continue
this pattern, we are dividing by 5 to get each new line.
54 = 5 5 5 5
53 = 5 5 5
52 = 5 5
51 = 5
50 = 1
5-1 =
5-2 =
5-3 =
Take note of the special cases
51 = 5,
50 = 1, and
5-1 =
They are easy to mess up and they can make you lose sleep unnecessarily when you are doing algebra later.
In general , any number a, (except 0) raised to the power 1 is a.
a1 = a
Also, any number a, (except 0) raised to the power 0 is 1.
a0 = 1
And, any number a, (except 0) raised to the power -1 is 1/a.

Multiplying Numbers With the Same Base

We often need to multiply something like the following:
43 45
We note the numbers have the same base (which is 4) and we think of it as follows:
43 45 = (4 4 4) (4 4 4 4 4)
We get 3 fours from the first bracket and 5 fours from the second bracket, so altogether we will have 3 + 5 = 8
fours multiplied together.
43 45 = 43+5 = 48
(If anyone cares, the final answer is 65,536. :-)
In general, we can say for any number a and indices m and n:

Dividing Numbers with the Same Base

As an example, let's divide 36 by 32:

We cancelled out 2 of the threes on top and the 2 threes on the bottom of the fraction, leaving 4 threes
on the top (and the number 1 on the bottom).
In general, for any number a (except 0) and indices m and n:

Raising an Index Expression to an Index

As an example, let's raise the number 42 to the power 3:

(42)3 = 42 42 42
From the multiplication example above, we can see that this is going to give us 46. We could have done
this as:
(42)3 = 423 = 46
In general, we have for any base a and indices m and n:
(am)n = amn
Raising a Product to a Power

Number example:
(5 2)3 = 53 23
In this case, with numbers, it would be better to perform the multiplication in brackets first and then
raise our answer to the power 3. But when we are using letters in algebra, we cannot do such a thing
and we need to know how to expand it out.

In general:
(ab)n = anbn

Raising a Quotient to a Power

Number example:

In general:

Summary of Index Laws

NOTE 2: There are no formulas for expressions like am + an = ...

This is because we can only add or subtract like terms (ones that have the same letter part). For example, this
is okay:
5a2 + 3a2 = 8a2,
because we are adding like terms.
But we cannot do anything with the following expression:
5a3 + 3a7
because these are unlike terms (not the same letter part).

Roots and Radicals

We use the radical sign:

It means "square root". The square root is actually a fractional index and is equivalent to
raising a number to the power 1/2.
So, for example:
251/2 = 25 = 5
You can also have
Cube root:

(which is equivalent to raising to the power 1/3), and

Fourth root:
(power 1/4) and so on.
See more at Fractional Exponents.
Key things to note
If a 0 and b 0, we have:
However, this only works for multiplying. Please note that:
does not equal
(Try it with some real numbers on your calculator).
Also, this one is often found in mathematics:
This confuses a lot of students. But it just means:
1. Start with a number
2. Square it
3. Find the square root of the result
4. Finish with the number you started with
For example, start with 3.
Square it, you get 9.
Take the square root, you get 3, which is back where you started.
Why does it matter? Often we need to "undo" a square when solving an equation, so we find the square root
of both sides. It's good to know what you are doing.
Fractional Exponents
Fractional exponents can be used instead of using the radical sign (). We use fractional exponents because
often they are more convenient, and it can make algebraic operations easier to follow.
Fractional Exponent Laws
The n-th root of a number can be written using the power

, as follows:

Meaning: The n-th root of a when multiplied by itself n times, gives us a.

a1/n a1/n a1/n ... a1/n = a
[Multiply n times]
Example 1
The cube root of 8 is 2 (since 23 = 8).
We can write the cube root of 8 as:
81/3
The following 3 numbers are equivalent:

Example 2

The square root of a number can be written using the radical sign () or with exponent 1/2.
The following are equivalent:

Example 3
The 4-th root of 625 can be written as either:
6251/4
or equivalently, as
Its value is 5, since 54 = 625.
So we could write:
6251/4 =

=5

Definitions
Radicand
The number under the radical is called the radicand (in Example 3, the number 625 is the radicand).
Order/Index of the radical
The number indicating the root being taken is called the order (or index) of the radical (in Example 3, the order is 4).
These definitions are here so you know what your textbook is talking about.
Raising the n-th root to the Power m
If we need to raise the n-th root of a number to the power m (say), we can write this as:
This experssion means we need to "take the n-th root of the number a, then raise the result to the power m". With
fractional exponents, we would write this as:
(a1/n)m
Actually, we get the same final answer if we do it in the other order, "raise a to the power m, then find the n-th root of the
result". But the first one is usually easier to do because finding the n-th root first gives us a smaller number, which is then
easy to raise to the power m.
Example 4
Evaluate

First, we found the cube root of 8 and the answer was 2.

Then we raised this result to the power 2, giving 4.
Example 5
Simplify

In the first line, we used this rule from the last section:
(am)n = amn
That is, we took each item inside the brackets and raised them to the power 1/3. We can do this because ecah term is
multiplied inside the bracket (if they were added or subtracted, we could not do this).
When we expand this out, the only thing we can do is to find the cube root of 8, which is 2, and then just write
the a and bparts with fractional powers.

Example 6

Simplify

Example 7
Simplify

Don't panic when you see this one! In the first step, we are moving the top expressions with negative exponents to the
bottom, and the bottom ones with negative exponents to the top.
Then we multiply terms with the same base (the x and yterms), by adding their indices. We can collect the 2 and 4
because they both have power 3/2.
Next, we raise everything to the power 2/3, since that was the power outside the bracket.
The final step is to tidy up the expression.
Whew!
Exercises
Question 1: Evaluate 51/253/2
Each item in this question has the same base (5), so we need to add the indices, as follows:

Question 2: Evaluate

On the top, the cube root of 1000 is 10.

On the bottom of the fraction, we have a negative index. We need to recall the following 2 properties of fractions and
negative indices:

If the number on the bottom has a negative index, then this is the result:

So 4001/2 on the bottom becomes 4001/2 on the top.

And 4001/2 = 400 = 20.
Here's the complete answer: