Question 78647
Lets say you have something like

{{{(x^2)^3}}}

This breaks down to


{{{(x^2)(x^2)(x^2)}}}


Now if we multiply this out we get


{{{x^(2+2+2)=x^6}}}


Which is equivalent to


{{{x^(2*3)=x^6}}}

So this way is much faster since if we had {{{(x^5)^20}}} we would have to add 5 to itself 20 times. However, we can use multiplication as a shortcut to get to the same answer.


So you multiply exponents when you have an expression with an exponent (like {{{x^2}}}) that is raised to another exponent (for instance {{{(x^2)^3=x^(2*3)=x^6}}})