5/22/2017 AlgebraRationalExponents

RationalExponents
Nowthatwehavelookedatintegerexponentsweneedtostartlookingatmorecomplicatedexponents.In
thissectionwearegoingtobelookingatrationalexponents.Thatisexponentsintheform

wherebothmandnareintegers.

Wewillstartsimplebylookingatthefollowingspecialcase,

wherenisaninteger.Oncewehavethisfiguredoutthemoregeneralcasegivenabovewillactuallybe
prettyeasytodealwith.

Letsfirstdefinejustwhatwemeanbyexponentsofthisform.

Inotherwords,whenevaluating wearereallyaskingwhatnumber(inthiscasea)didweraisetothento

getb.Often iscalledthenthrootofb.

Letsdoacoupleofevaluations.

Example1Evaluateeachofthefollowing.

(a) [Solution]

(b) [Solution]

(c) [Solution]
(d) [Solution]

(e) [Solution]

(f) [Solution]
Solution
Whendoingtheseevaluationswewilldoactuallynotdothemdirectly.
Whenfirstconfrontedwiththesekindsofevaluationsdoingthem
directlyisoftenverydifficult.Inordertoevaluatethesewewill
remembertheequivalencegiveninthedefinitionandusethatinstead.

Wewillworkthefirstoneindetailandthennotputasmuchdetailinto
therestoftheproblems.

(a)
So,hereiswhatweareaskinginthisproblem.

Usingtheequivalencefromthedefinitionwecanrewritethisas,

So,allthatwearereallyaskinghereiswhatnumberdidwesquareto
get25.Inthiscasethatis(hopefully)easytoget.Wesquare5toget
25.Therefore,

http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/Classes/Alg/RationalExponents.aspx 1/2
5/22/2017 AlgebraRationalExponents

[ReturntoProblems]

(b)
Sowhatweareaskinghereiswhatnumberdidweraisetothe5thpower
toget32?

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