Math Expression: Fractional Exponents Practice Questions

Simplify the following:

Step 1

Fractions are just basically numbers. Therefore the exponent laws are still applicable.

Let's use the first exponent law to simplify this term.

This term now becomes:
Step 2

Alright, '+' sign multiply by '-' sign gives a '-' sign.

Hence, we have:
Step 3

Now, since both of the denominators are the same, we can combine these two fractions into one.

Hence, this term becomes:

$Simplifying the fractional exponents$
Step 4

Now, 2 divides by 2 gives 1. Rather than leaving the answer as a1. It's neater to write a1 as a.

Clearly, the answer is C.