SOLUTION: Hello, I have 2 questions to ask. First off, I am in the sixth grade and I understand the rules of algebra, I just don't get what (v squared and p cubed are). Is there any way you

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Question 118190: Hello, I have 2 questions to ask. First off, I am in the sixth grade and I understand the rules of algebra, I just don't get what (v squared and p cubed are). Is there any way you can help me understand or show me what it is?
Please and thanks!
~Little Nah-Nah
Answer by bucky(2189) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Congratulations on your progress in math!
.
v squared is written as and it means that v is multiplied by itself. In other words,
v squared is v times v. It is usually written as:
.

.
Notice that you have two v's multiplying each other. This is the idea of the 2 in the
term . It tells you to multiply two v's.
.
p-cubed is very similar. It is written as and it means that p is multiplied by itself
such that you have three p terms involved. The multiplication is p times p times p and it is usually
written as:
.

.
Suppose you were asked to find 5 squared. In writing this might be shown as . How
would you do that? The answer is found by multiplying two 5's ... 5 times 5 to get 25. So
you can say that 5 squared is 25. How about finding 5 cubed ? Just multiply
three 5's together as in 5 times 5 times 5. 5 times 5 is 25 and multiplying that by another
5 gives you the answer 125. So you can say that 5 cubed is 125 or .
.
You may have noticed that squared means 2 and cubed means 3. You can extend this concept of
multiplication to 4 or 5 or 6 or any number. For example means multiplying
four x's together as in x times x times x times x. (Note that this IS NOT the same as
four times x. Think about it ... but 4 times 5 is only 20. Quite
a difference!)
.
Hope this gives you a general idea of the meaning of squaring a number, cubing it,
or raising it to the 4th power as in or the 5th power as in .