February 19: More with Negative Exponents

Today we looked at a few more complex expressions and simplified them.  The idea was to get rid of the negatives by dividing.  Mrs. Corkins and Mr. Alexander both gave different notes, so both are attached to this post in the hopes that if you were still a bit confused after today's lesson, maybe seeing some additional notes from the other class will help!

Here are the notes that Mrs. Corkins gave. 

These are the notes from Mr. Alexander.

Click here for today's homework.

February 18: Negative Exponents

Today we learned about negative exponents.  Yesterday when we discussed zero exponents, we discovered that if the exponent is decreased, we divide by the base.  This pattern continues down from zero into the negatives!  So if a base is raised to a negative, it does not give a negative number, but it continues to divide by the base!

Rule:

x ^-m  =    1  

            x ^m

for any value x other than zero

Click here to download today's homework.