MATH 1P97 Lecture 2: Class 02 MATH 1P97

• School: Brock University
• Department: Mathematics and Statistics
• Course: MATH 1P97
• Professor: Anton Knigavko

Document Summary

This is when we have xy or similar. There"s a bunch of rules on these, but they start. Exponents with so that for whole, positive, number a xa = 1 x x x x a of these. I like that one at the start, which reinforces one as the sort of base value with exponents. Negative values, a n: negatives mean starting at one and then doing the opposite of multiplication n times. Fractions: fractional powers create roots, so a1/n = n a . So, we get 41/2 = 4 = 2 and 271/3 = 3 27 = 3. This extends to am/n = n am = (cid:0) n a(cid:1)m (with the last one working only if the inner square roots being de ned). You can actually de ne ax for any a > 0 and any x at all, by extrapolating from this rule (don"t think about this too much).