Module 2: Properties of Exponents

Understanding how to use exponents is a helpful skill set not only in mathematics, but also in the sciences, such as astronomy and physics. This module will provide you the opportunity to investigate the properties of exponents. You will explore the patterns that generate these properties and learn how to apply them to simplify exponential expressions that include products and quotients. You will simplify expressions given in scientific notation, including those involving zero and negative exponents.

 

Getting Started

In today's digital age, videos, comments, and photographs are constantly shared online. Information is shared at a faster pace and with a much larger audience than ever before. Media that is shared at an extremely fast rate is often described as "going viral", but what does that mean mathematically? Consider the following scenario.

Yesterday morning, Carlos posted a video to his social media account. One hundred of his friends viewed the video and then sent it to 100 of their friends. Those 100 friends also viewed it and then sent it to 100 of their friends.

Share	1	100	100 · 100	100 · 100 · 100
Number of Views	1	100	10,000	1,000,000
Exponential Expression	1000	1001	1002	1003

Before the end of the day, 1,000,000 people had viewed the video that Carlos posted. The video reached such a large number of people at such a rapid pace, that it is described as going viral, similar to the way a virus can quickly spread from person to person. In mathematical terms, you could explain that the video was shared at an exponential pace.

Key Vocabulary

To view the definitions for these key vocabulary terms, visit the course glossary.