SOLUTION: (6*10^4)^5

Algebra ->  Exponents -> SOLUTION: (6*10^4)^5      Log On


   



Question 72724This question is from textbook McDOUGAL Littell/Houghton Mifflin Algebra 1 An Intergrated Approach
: (6*10^4)^5 This question is from textbook McDOUGAL Littell/Houghton Mifflin Algebra 1 An Intergrated Approach

Answer by bucky(2189) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
When you are tasked to raise a quantity to the 5th power, what you are being asked to do
is to write he quantity down 5 times in a row and then put multiplication signs between
these 5 terms. For this problem this involves:
.
%286%2A10%5E4%29%2A%286%2A10%5E4%29%2A%286%2A10%5E4%29%2A%286%2A10%5E4%29%2A%286%2A10%5E4%29
.
and by the rules of multiplication you get 6%2A6%2A6%2A6%2A6+=+7776 and you multiply the 10%5E4
terms by adding the exponents to get 10%5E%284%2B4%2B4%2B4%2B4%29+=+10%5E20. Therefore the answer becomes
7776%2A10%5E20 which can be changed to scientific notation if you wish by taking a factor of
10%5E3 from the 7776 making it 7.776+%2A+10%5E3 and multiplying this by 10%5E20.
In doing so you can add the exponents of the 10s to get the scientific notation form of the
answer as equal to 7.776+%2A+10%5E23.
.
That's the long way of doing it, but it shows how it can be thought of. The short way
is to think of the original problem as:
.
%286%5E1%2A10%5E4%29%5E5
.
Then multiply the exponent 5 times each of the 2 exponents in parentheses to get:
.
6%5E5+%2A+10%5E20
.
and you can raise 6 to the 5th power on any basic scientific calculator ($10 or less) to get
that it is 7776 and multiply that by 10%5E20 to get the answer as7776%2A10%5E20
and this can again be converted to scientific notation as was explained above.
.
Hope this helps you with the rules of exponents.