The Basics of Dividing Exponential Expressions

Imagine you have a superpower that lets you work with really powerful numbers called exponents. When you see an expression like "5²," the ² is the exponent, and it means you should multiply 5 by itself. So, 5² is 5 × 5, which equals 25.

Now, let's talk about dividing exponential expressions. When you have expressions like "8³ / 8²," where both have the same base (which is 8 in this case), you can use your superpower to simplify it. To divide with the same base, you subtract the exponents. In this example, 8³ / 8² is like having 8 × 8 × 8 divided by 8 × 8.

So, you can subtract the exponents: 3 (from the top) minus 2 (from the bottom) is 1. This means you're left with just one 8 in the numerator (top part), and you don't have anything in the denominator (bottom part). In math lingo, this is just 8¹, which is 8.

So, when you divide exponential expressions with the same base, you subtract the exponents. This helps you simplify and solve these types of problems.

[elijahmitchell]

It’s equal to x but the domain is all numbers except 0