Exponents and surds (Grade 11)

Unit 1: Laws of exponents (Revision)

• From earlier grades you know the definition of an exponent and the laws of exponents:

• exponent (index) – a number or variable that shows how many times a number
(the base) is multiplied by itself:
base → 34→index or exponent
=3×3×3×3

• Laws where the exponents m and n are natural numbers:

(The natural numbers include the positive integers (also known as non-negative integers) and a few examples
include 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, … ∞. In other words, natural numbers are a set of all the whole numbers excluding 0. 23,
56, 78, 999, 100202, etc. are all examples of natural numbers.)

• NOTE 1:
•

• The simplest way of factorising is: Find the highest common

factor of each of the terms in the expression.
•
•

•
•

•
•

•
•