The City School

Gulshan Campus C
Academic Year 2019-20
Class 11
Subject: Mathematics 4024
Topic: LAW OF INDICES
Time duration: 40 min
Teacher: Sir Aamir Ahmed
 Pre-Lesson Instructions

O Kindly keep a notebook in front of you.

O Focus on the key words and note it down
immediately.
O For any query, kindly notify me in the chat box.
O You will be given time to ask questions, so
kindly wait for your turn.
O Make to fill the evaluation form at the end.
OBJECTIVES
(a) Understand laws for multiplying power
expressions, raising a power to a power and
dealing with 0 or negative exponents.
(b) Deal with fractional exponents.
(c) Deal with problems involving a mixture of
bases.
Terminology

! ?
“power”
“exponent” or
“index”?
(plural “indices”)
 
4
3 =3 ×3 ×3 ×3 The exponent tells us how many times the base
“Base”
? appears in a product.

! We say this as “3 to the power of 4” or “3

raised to the power of 4” or “3 to the 4”.
 Indices
Indices is the mathematical term for “power”
Indices is the plural term for the singular term ‘Index’
They can be numbers or letters and float happily in the air next to a base number or letter

The index or power

The base

Indices (powers) only

Do not multiply the
apply to the
base with the power
number/letter (base)
A BIG No No No!
to the left of it
More on notation

4
3
   You may have heard the 4 referred to as the power. But ‘power’
refers to the whole expression ; the 4 is the exponent!

Phrase Precise meaning

“Powers of 2.”  Powers where the base is 2:

?

“3 raised to the power of 2.” .  ‘Raised’ here means ‘turned into a

power’. While “power of 2” might suggest
?
the 2 is the ‘power’, it’s really short for
“power with an exponent of 2”.
Understanding powers
When the exponent is a positive integer (whole number), it indicates how many
times the base is repeated in the multiplication.

5 appears 2 times.

2
 
?

5 =𝟓×𝟓=𝟐𝟓
?
?
?
?
It’s possible for the exponent to be fractional, 0 or negative.
We’ll deal with these later!

Warning:
  Sometimes people incorrectly
describe “” as “4 multiplied by itself 3 times”.
This would suggest there are 3 multiplications,
but actually only has 2 multiplications!
Multiplying powers
How would we simplify this?  means 3 ’s multiplied
together.

𝑥 ×𝑥 ¿ 𝑥×𝑥 ×𝑥×𝑥 ×𝑥
3 2
   

5
¿𝑥
    total we had 5 ’s
In
multiplied together.

 ! 1st law of indices:

i.e. when we multiply two powers, we

add the exponents.
Quickfire Questions

Do in your head!
?

5 4 𝟗
 

𝑥 ×𝑥 =𝒙
?
  Tip: When there is no
Fro
? exponent, you can raise
? the term to the power of 1:
?
?
?
?
Dividing Powers
How would we simplify this?

5
𝑥
 
𝑥 ×𝑥×𝑥 ×𝑥× 𝑥
 

3 ¿
𝑥 𝑥×𝑥 ×𝑥
Remember that we can simplify
2
¿𝑥
  fractions by dividing the
numerator and denominator by
the same number (or term).

 ! 2nd law of indices:

i.e. when we divide two powers, we

subtract the exponents.
Quickfire Questions
Do in your head!

100 2 𝟗𝟖
 

2 ÷2 =𝟐
?

?
?

?
Raising a Power to a Power
How would we simplify this?

4 3 3 3 3
(𝑥 ) ¿ 𝑥 ×𝑥 ×𝑥 ×𝑥
3
   

12
¿𝑥
 

 ! 3rd law of indices:

i.e. when we raise a power to a power,

we multiply the exponents.
Quickfire Questions
Your teacher will target various people. Do in your head!

5
  ?

3 𝟏𝟓
?

(𝑦 ) =𝒚 ?

?
?

?
?
 Group Challenges
   
1
What is half of ? 2 What is a ninth of
  𝟐𝟕
?
𝟐𝟕 𝟔   𝟗𝟗 𝟑𝟗𝟗
𝟑 𝟗𝟕
= ?𝟏 = 𝟐 = ?𝟐 = 𝟑
𝟐 𝟐 𝟗 𝟑

   
3 What is a 4 What is the square
quarter of ? root of ?
  𝟒𝒙𝟒𝒙   𝟒 𝟒 𝟐 𝟖
𝟒
= ?𝟏
=𝟒
𝒙 −𝟏
𝟑 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆
? (𝟑 ) =𝟑
𝟒
N  What is ?
  The LHS is .
So?
Exercise 1a Questions on provided worksheet.

1 Simplify the following. 2 Simplify the following. 3 If

  , what is in terms of ?
a   ? a  
? ?
b ?
c ? b ?  Simplify the following:
4
d ? c ? a ?
e ? b ?
f ? d ?
g ? c ?
h ? e ? d
?
i ? f ? e
j ? ?
k ? g ?
l ?
Exercise continues
m ? on next slide…
n ?
o ?
Exercise 1a Questions on provided worksheet.

5 [Edexcel
  GCSE June2003-6H Q17a] N1 Solve
 
If , , express the following in
terms of and/or :
(i) ? ?
(ii)
(iii)
? Given that , express
as a single power of 4.
? N2

6 Simplify the following.

 a) ?
b) ?
c) ? ?
Zero and negative indices
Is there a pattern we can
see that will help us out?

0 −1
   

3 3
33 = 27  ÷ 3

32 = 9
 ÷ 3
At this point, it doesn’t 31 = 3
make sense to say “The  ÷ 3
product of -1 threes”. We’ll 3 = 1?
0

have to use a different

1
approach! 3 = -1 ?
3
1
3 = -2
9?
Quickfire Questions
Your teacher will target various people. Do in your head!

𝟏 𝟏
   
? ?
A power of -1
therefore ‘flips’
? (reciprocates) the
?

−2
fraction.

−1
?

4= 6=
?
? ?

? ?

𝟒 𝟑𝟔
? ?
? ?
?
?
?
?
Mini Exercise (Exercise 1b) Questions on provided worksheet.

1  Determine the value of: N  [Edexcel GCSE June2003-6H Q17b]

Let , ,
a ?
b ? If 𝑥𝑦 = 32 and , find the value of 𝑝 and
the value of 𝑞 .
c ?
d ?
 Dividing the second equation by first:
2
Therefore
?

  (as )
?
A reminder of the Laws of Indices

𝑏 𝑐 𝑏 0
 
𝑎 × 𝑎 =𝑎 ? +𝑐  
𝑎 =1
?

 
𝑎𝑏 𝑏− 𝑐
𝑐
= 𝑎?  
𝑎 1
=𝑎
?
𝑎
  𝑏 𝑐 𝑏𝑐
(𝑎 ) =𝑎?

 
−𝑏 1
𝑎 = ?𝑏
𝑎
Fractional Indices

  1
2
𝑥 =√ 𝑥
And how could we prove this?
 
But it’s also the case that:

by laws of indices.
?
So
Fractional Indices

  1
3 3
𝑥 =√ 𝑥
?

 
1
𝑛 𝑛
𝑥 =√ 𝑥
?
Examples

1 16 0.25
 
?
=2
?

1 2

2
?   2
( √ 𝑥 ) =( 𝑥 ) =𝑥
64 =√ 𝟔𝟒=𝟖
3 2 3 ? 3
?
  1
? 3
( − 1000 ) =−
? 10
Test Your Understanding So Far…

1
 
?

2
36 = √𝟑𝟔=𝟔
?

?
 What if the numerator is not 1?
‘Workings’-wise I usually skip his
 
3 1 3 step.

9 = 9 2 ( ) =3 = 27
2 ? 3

2
…then just deal with what’s left.
 

5 2
32 =2 =4 ?
Using denominator, do 5th power of 32 first to
get 2 (but still have numerator left in the
power to deal with)
Best to deal with negative in power first. Recall this
does “1 over” the expression without the minus.
  3
−
4 1 1 1
16 = 3
=?
3
=
4 2 8
16
A few more examples
 

Recall that “reciprocating” a

fraction will cause it to flip.

?
Test Your Understanding

2
 
?

3 𝟐
27 =𝟑 =𝟗
?

?
Exercise 2 Questions on provided worksheet.
1
1   1
1 64
11   − 3
1
 
?
100 =10 2

1
7
64 ? =
−
3
4 27 ( ) 3
? =
3
4
   
9 − 64
2

 
125 =5
?

− 0.5
3

1
8
  −
64 3 ?=
2
1 12

16 16
3
( ) 2
? =
27
3 16 =?  
16 4 𝟐𝟕
−

  −
2
4
1
9
  2
5
32 = 4 ?
13
81 ( )=
5
𝟖
?
4
27 3
=? 3
1 14
 
8 3 𝟐𝟒𝟑
−
( )
  −
9 10 32 =?5
= ?
  4
8 27 𝟑𝟐
5 3
8 =16
?
15 Write the following expression without using
1
  −
3 1 indices:
  1
6 8 =? 2 𝑥
− 0.5
= ?
√𝑥
Applying indices to products

  2 2 2
( 𝑎𝑏 ) =𝑎 ?𝑏

2
 

( 𝑎+𝑏 ) =( 𝑎 +𝑏 ) ( 𝑎+𝑏 ) ?

  moral of the story:

The
1. Applying a power to a product applies the power to each term.
2. Applying a power to a sum does NOT apply power to each term.
i.e. in general.
Examples

  2 𝟐
(2 𝑥 ) =𝟒 𝒙 ?

  2 3 𝟔 𝟑
(3 𝑥 𝑦 ) =𝟐𝟕 𝒙
? 𝒚
  1
6 2 ? 𝟑
( 9 𝑥 ) =𝟑 𝒙
  1 𝟏
6 3 ?𝟐 𝟑
(8 𝑥 𝑦 ) = 𝟐 𝒙 𝒚
Test Your Understanding

 
Simplify
4 6
 
9 𝑥 ? 𝑦
 
Simplify

  1
2? 2
3 𝑥 𝑦
Exercise 3 Questions on provided worksheet.

 Simplify the following:

1 ?
2 ?
3 ?
4 ?
5 ?
6 ?
7 ?
8 ?
9 ?
10 ?
11 ?
Law of Indices Backwards
This part of the topic is a bit more Further Mathsey…

 
Solve
The ‘thinking backwards’ method The ‘cancelling the power’ method.

 If I had some number to the power of ,

what would I do to it?  
What power should I raise both sides of
the equation to ‘cancel’ the power?
Find the 4th root then cube it.

So going backwards from 27:

Cube root: 3 ?
Raise to the power of 4: 81 ?
Further Examples

   
Solve Solve

𝟐
𝟐𝟕
   
−
𝟑 𝟐𝟓 −𝟑
𝒙 =
? 𝒚 = ?
𝟗 𝟖
Test Your Understanding

 Solve

  𝟑
𝟐?
𝑥 =𝟗 =𝟐𝟕

 Solve

𝟐
 
𝟖 − 𝟗
𝑥=( )
𝟐𝟕
? 𝟑
=
𝟒
Exercise 4 Questions on provided worksheet.

  6  [AQA FM Set 3 Paper 1]

1 If , find . ? and
Solve Work out the value of
2 [AQA FM June 2012 Paper?1] and .
3 Work out the value of
?
[AQA FM Set 1 Paper 2] You are given
[AQA FM June 2013 Paper 1] that and .
Solve writing your answer as a proper 7 (a) Write in terms of .
fraction. ?
(b) Write in terms of and .
4 [June 2013 Paper 2] ?
Write in terms of and . (c) Write in terms of .
Give your answer in its simplest form.
? ?
(d) Write in terms of and .
5 ?
?
?
Changing bases
 What do you notice about all of the numbers:

They’re all powers of 2! We could replace the numbers with ,

? base.
and so that we have a consistent
Changing bases
 
 
1 Solve 2 Solve

First convert
everything to
powers of 2.
 
𝟑 𝟑
  ?
𝒙 (𝟐 )
First convert everything

? 𝟐 = to powers of 2…

? 𝟏
𝟐
? 𝟐
 If , determine .
3

?
Test Your Understanding
1  If , find .

Solve ?

?
 Exercise 5 Questions on provided worksheet.

1 Write
  as a single power of : 4 [Edexcel
  GCSE(9-1) June 2017 2H Q18]
a ? Work out the exact value of .
b ?
c ? ?
d ? 5
[Edexcel IGCSE Jan2017-4H Q16d]
e ? Work out the exact value of .
f ?
[Edexcel GCSE(9-1) Nov 2017 2F Q21c, Nov 2017 2H
g Q6c Edited]  can be written in the form 
?
Express  in terms of  and .
Solve ?
2
Solve for : N

3
?
a ? ?
b ?
c ?
d ?
e ?