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Simplify Fraction Exponents

Formula and examples of how to simplify Fraction exponents

This page explains fractional exponents with a numerator of 1. For instance, we will look at 81¼. You should first understand this concept before attemtping to understand exponents with fractions whose numerators are not one like 8¾

If you have ever calculated the square root of a number then you were actually using a fraction exponent! The square root of a number is the same as raising that number (3 in our example) to an exponent of ½
What about other fractions in the exponent?

The cube root of 8 or 81/3
The fourth root of 81 or 81 ¼

To try to understand the idea behind fraction exponents let's examine a property of the fractional exponents. The math below comes directly from the basic laws of exponents.


So we all know that the square root of 9 (or 9½) is three and that 3*3 = 9, right?

Well, what about the next lines? What about 81/3? What number is that? Well, we know, from the laws of exponents, that 81/3 can be multiplied with itself three times (81/3*81/3*81/3) to get a product of 8....well, wait a minute. You already know a number that can be multiplied by itself three times to get 8: the number 2! Remember 2*2*2 = 8. Therefore, 81/3 = 2 .

By the same logic we can determine that 81 ¼ is the number 3(3*3*3*3 = 81).

General Formula for fractional exponents



I want to point out that we have only been dealing with fractional exponents with a numerator of 1! Later on we will deal with fractional exponents with other numbrators

Practice Problems: Simplify each fraction exponent



Simplify 1251/3
Answer
Simplify 1252/3
Answer
Formula when the fraction in the exponent is not one



Below is a specific example illustrating the formula for fraction exponents when the numerator is not one. There are two ways to simplify a fraction exponent such 2/3. You can either apply the numerator first or the denominator. See the example below.
Example of fraction exponent
Simplify 642/3
Answer
Simply 81¾
Answer

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