Indices and Powers

By: Ahmed Baig

What are Indices?

Indices is the plural for index. Indices are
a useful way of more simply expressing
large numbers. They also present us with
many useful properties for manipulating
them using what are called the Law of
Indices.
Example: The expression 2 is defined as
follows: 2x2x2

What are Law of Indices?

To manipulate expressions, we can
consider using the Law of Indices. These
laws only apply to expressions with the
same base, for example, 34 and 32 can
be manipulated using the Law of
Indices, but we cannot use the Law of
Indices to manipulate the expressions 3 5
and 57 as their base differs (their bases
are 3 and 5, respectively).

Laws of Indices
When dividing indices you just subtract
the powers and keep the number as
the same
Example: 2 2 = 2-= 2
When multiplying indices you add the
powers and keep the number as the
same
Example: 2 x 2 = 2+= 2

What are Powers?

The power of a number shows you how
many times to use the number in a
multiplication.
It is written as a small number to the
right and above the base number.
In this example: 82 = 8 8 = 64

End of
PowerPoint