GCSE Powers and Roots

Indices are also referred to as the 'power of' and are a simple way of writing
repeated multiplication.
3
E.g. 2 = 2 × 2 × 2

Laws of Indices

1st Law

When multiplying, you need to add the powers together.

a m × a n = a ( m+ n ) E.g. 4 2 × 43 = 4( 2+ 3) = 45

2nd Law

When dividing, you need to subtract the powers from each other

am 36
n
= a ( m−n) E.g. 4
= 3( 6−4) = 3 2
a 3

3rd Law

When raising one power to another, you need to multiply the powers
together

(a m )n = a (m×n) E.g. (53 )2 = 5( 3×2) = 5 6

4th Law

Any number to the power of zero is 1.

a0 = 1 E.g. 70 = 1

5th Law

With negative powers, turn it upside down and change power to positive

1 1
a −n = n
E.g. 6−2 = 2
a 6
Square Roots/Cube Roots

The square root of a given number is a number which when multiplied by

itself produces the given number.

E.g. Square root of 36 is 6 since 6 x 6 = 36. Written as √ 36 = 6

Square root is the inverse (opposite) of squared.

The cube root of a given number is a number which when multiplied by itself
twice produces the given number.

E.g. Cube root of 64 is 4 since 4 x 4 x 4 = 64. Written as √3 64 = 4

Cube root is the inverse of cubed.

Fractional Powers

Fractional powers are used to represent roots. This is best explained with
some examples.
1 1
E.g. 2
5 = √5 or 3
34 = √3 34

This leads us to another important law.

6th Law

A fractional power means the root of.

1
n
a = √n a

Two Stage Problems

In this case just treat each part of the problem separately.

E.g. Solve (b2 x c3 x d)2

Calculate each part separately

(b2)2 x (c3)2 x d2 = b4c6d2

Combining Rules To Solve Difficult Problems

Most GCSE Higher questions will require you to apply more than one rule in
the question. Lets put this into action.

'Grade 7 GCSE question'

16 − 34
( )
81

This seems difficult but applying the rules correctly simplifies matters. We
start by applying the 5th law. We flip the fraction upside down and the power
becomes positive..

81 34
( )
16
Next we apply the 6th Law to get the 4th root of the fraction.

√
3
81
4 3 3
( ) = ( ) 3 x 3 x 3 x 3 = 81 and 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 = 16
16 2
Finally we apply the 3rd Law to give us the answer.

3 3 27
( )= 3 x 3 x 3 = 27 and 2 x 2 x 2 = 8
2 8