SOLUTION: what is 5z to the seventh power times 12z to the negative ninth power?

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Question 935566: what is 5z to the seventh power times 12z to the negative ninth power?
Answer by Edwin McCravy(20056) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
5z%5E7%2A12z%5E9

Then we multiply the 5 by the 12 to get the coefficient.

So this means 

5%2A12%2A%28z%2Az%2Az%2Az%2Az%2Az%2Az%29%28z%2Az%2Az%2Az%2Az%2Az%2Az%2Az%2Az%29

60%28z%2Az%2Az%2Az%2Az%2Az%2Az%2Az%2Az%2Az%2Az%2Az%2Az%2Az%2Az%2Az%29

60z%2Az%2Az%2Az%2Az%2Az%2Az%2Az%2Az%2Az%2Az%2Az%2Az%2Az%2Az%2Az

But it is not necessary to write z 7 times to be multiplied 
and then 9 more times to be multiplied and then counting the
z's to see that there are 16 of them to be multiplied and 
then write  

60z%5E16

We can use the shortcut of adding the exponents 7+9=16 to find
the exponent of z.  This is a case of ADDING in order to MULTIPLY!

Edwin