Using the Exponent laws - Multiplying powers

by Visitor
(Canada)

Question

I am having difficulties understanding how to simplify exponents. How do we simplify (2a)²(a³) ?

Answer

There seems too be a lot of brackets here. Let's rewrite this expression so that it is easier to comprehend:

(2a)² × a³

From the above, seems that we need to simplify (2a)² first. Here's how we can do so:

Using the law (ab)ⁿ = aⁿbⁿ  we have:
(2a)² = 2²a²= 4a²

Hence, the equation becomes:


Next, we can simplify this expression further using the law,
aⁿ × a^m= a^{n + m} as shown below:


We can no longer able to simplify this further. So, the answer is 4a⁵.

You can learn more about the laws of exponents in these math lessons:

1. Exponent laws - Part 1


2. Exponent laws - Part 2