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Ontario MTH1W · Number · B2.1

Powers and scientific notation

Evaluate powers and write very large or very small quantities in scientific notation.

The core idea

A power is repeated multiplication. Scientific notation writes a non-zero number as a value from 1 up to 10 multiplied by a power of 10.

Learning example

Multiply powers with the same base

Simplify (2³)(2⁴), then evaluate it.

  1. 1

    The base is the same, so add the exponents: 2³ × 2⁴ = 2³⁺⁴.

  2. 2

    This gives 2⁷.

  3. 3

    Evaluate: 2⁷ = 128.

Answer(2³)(2⁴) = 128

A common mistake

Multiplying the exponents. For the same base, multiplication means add the exponents.

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