Exponents - Review of Simple Addition and Subtraction

As you may recall, an exponent is that small superscript number that appears at the upper right-hand corner of a number.

As an example, if the number 6 is squared, it will look like 6². The “²” is an exponent. What the exponent tells you is how many times a number is multiplied by itself. So, looking at our example 6², this tells you that 6 will be multiplied by itself two times or 6 x 6 and 6 x 6 = 36.

If we then have the number 6⁵, we know the 6 will be multiplied by itself 5 times as follows:

6 x 6 x 6 x 6 x 6 =
6 x 6 = 36 x 6 = 216 x 6 = 1296 x 6 = 7776

Since it takes too long, and frankly too much space to write this out, math provides a shortcut by simply making it 6⁵.

We then solve 6⁵ as follows: 6 x 6 = 36 x 6 = 216 x 6 = 1296 x 6 = 7776

Adding and Subtracting:

Understanding how the exponents work, we can now add and/or subtract numbers with exponents. Let’s look at the following practice problem to see how it is worked out to find a solution.

2⁴ + 3² =
2 x 2 = 4 x 2 = 8 x 2 = 16
3 x 3 = 9
16 + 9 = 25
Solution: 2⁴ + 3² = 25