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DCU School of Mathematical Sciences Basic Skills Worksheet 5 Indices and Powers

This document discusses indices and powers. It defines indices as shorthand notation for powers, with the number written as an exponent called the index. The three laws of indices allow simplifying expressions with powers: 1) am × an = am+n, 2) am = am-n, 3) (am)n = amn. Negative indices represent reciprocals. Fractional indices represent roots. Examples show applying the laws to simplify expressions and solve equations involving powers and indices.

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83 views6 pages

DCU School of Mathematical Sciences Basic Skills Worksheet 5 Indices and Powers

This document discusses indices and powers. It defines indices as shorthand notation for powers, with the number written as an exponent called the index. The three laws of indices allow simplifying expressions with powers: 1) am × an = am+n, 2) am = am-n, 3) (am)n = amn. Negative indices represent reciprocals. Fractional indices represent roots. Examples show applying the laws to simplify expressions and solve equations involving powers and indices.

Uploaded by

Khandai Seenanan
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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DCU School of Mathematical Sciences BASIC SKILLS WORKSHEET 5 Indices and powers

The aim of this worksheet is to revise the maths of powers (x2 , What are indices? Recall that we use this shorthand notation: 2 2 = 22 , 2 2 2 = 23 , 2 2 2 2 = 24 , and so on. The numbers 2,3,4 here are called indices (this is the plural of index). So the word index is just another word for power. In all cases here, the number 2 is called the base. Thus am has base a and index m. What are they for? They are for making life easier. Not only do they save time in writing down certain pieces of maths, but they can also simplify certain problems. The aim here is to learn how to deal with indices in order to exploit this. The basics In line with what we have above, 2m = 2 2 2 2 appears m times. This works for any positive whole number m. So 33 = 3 3 3 = 27, 28 = 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 = 256. The rst law of indices This says that am an = am+n . Lets check this: 23 24 = = = = (2 2 2) (2 2 2 2) 2222222 27 23+4 . x etc).

This allows us to simplify certain expressions, and so make any equations involving these expressions easier to solve. 1

Examples 1. Simplify 46 47 . Solution: 46 47 = 46+7 = 413 . 2. Simplify a2 b3 a4 b2 . Solution: The key here is that we can only combine powers attached to the same base. So a2 b3 a4 b5 = (a2 a4 ) (b3 b5 ) = a2+4 b3+5 = a6 b8 . 3. Simplify 3x2 4x4 . Here, we must keep the numerical part and the x s separate. 3x2 4x4 = (3 4) (x2 x4 ) = 12x6 . The second law of indices This says that am = amn . an 38 33333333 = 5 3 33333 = 333 = 33 = 385 . Examples 57 1. Simplify 3 . 5 57 Solution: 3 = 573 = 54 . 5 a4 b3 2. Simplify 2 2 . ab Solution: Again, the key is that we can only combine powers attached to the same base. So a4 b5 a4 b5 = a2 b2 a2 b2 = a42 b52 = a2 b3 .

Lets check this:

3. Simplify

4y 7 . 2y 3 We must keep the numerical part and the y s separate. 4y 7 4 y 7 3 = 2y 3 2 y 4 = 2y .

The third law of indices This is about powers of powers and says (am )n = amn . Lets check this: (52 )3 = 52 52 52 (52 appears three times) = 52+2+2 using 1st law 23 = 5 . So for example (43 )4 = 412 , (a2 b3 )4 = a8 b12 , (2x2 )5 = 25 x10 . Exercise 1 1. Use the three laws of indices to simplify these expressions. (a) 127 123 (b) 85 83 (c) (a3 b5 )(a7 b2 ) x5 y 6 x3 y 2 (e) (x2 y 3 )4

(d)

Some special cases Any number divided by itself gives one. So for example, 26 = 1. 26 But according to the second law, 26 = 266 = 20 . 6 2 This would work for any number a, not just 2. So we have this fact: 3

For any number a, a0 = 1. Similarly, by cancelling out powers of 2, we have 25 22222 = =2 4 2 2222 = 254 = 21 , using the second law. Again, this would work for any number a, not just 2. So we have For any number a, a1 = a. Negative powers We have this rule for negative powers: am = So for example 23 = Fractional powers What does 3 2 mean? To nd out, multiply this number by itself: 32 32 = 32+2 = 31 = 3 , 1 using the rst law of indices. This tells us that 3 2 = 3. Similarly, for any number a, 1 an = n a = nth root of a. Examples 1. 64 3 = 4, since 43 = 64. 2. 34 =
1 1 1 1 1 1 1

1 . am

1 1 = . 23 8

1 1 = . 4 3 81 1 1 = = . 4 16 16
1 2

3. 16 2 = Exercise 2

1. Evaluate these numbers. (a) 25 2 (b) 27 3 (c) 64 3 4


1 1 1

(d) 103 2. Explain the meaning of the number x 4 . 3. Simplify the following expressions. x4 x 3 x5 x 2 (b) y 3 y 3 (c) a4 b5 (a) Applications Suppose we want to solve the equation (1 + x)7 = 1.35 This type of equation arises in nancial maths and elsewhere. We need to isolate the x. No amount of adding, subtracting or dividing across will help here. We need to use indices. The key is to remember that a1 = a for any number a. So how could we get (1 + x)1 ? Heres how: ((1 + x)7 ) 7 = (1 + x)7 7 = (1 + x)1 = 1 + x. So to solve the equation, we take the 1/7th power of both sides. This gives 1 + x = (1.35) 7 = 1.0438 Then we subtract 1 to get the answer, x = 0.0438 Exercise 3 1. Use the method above to solve these equations. (a) (1 + x)5 = 32 x 12 (b) (1 + ) = 1.5 100 (c) (1 x)3 = 0.2335 y (d) (1 )18 = 100 24
1 1 1 1

(correct to 4 decimal places).

Solutions to exercises
Exercise 1 1. (a) 1210 (b) 82 (c) a10 b7 (d) x2 y 4 (e) x8 y 12 Exercise 2 1. (a) 5 (b) 3 1 (c) 4 (d) 0.001 2. x 4 is the fourth root of the number x. That is, when x 4 is multiplied by itself four times, the result if x. 3. (a) x2 (b) y 2 (c) a 3 b 3 Exercise 3 1. (a) 1 (b) 3.4366 (c) 0.3842 (d) -6.9972
4 5 7 1 1

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