How do you simplify $3^9/3^5$ ?

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Answer 1 · 2018-03-06T17:02:36

See a solution process below:

First, we can use this rule of exponents to eliminate the fraction:

$x^color(red)(a)/x^color(blue)(b) = x^(color(red)(a)-color(blue)(b))$

$3^color(red)(9)/3^color(blue)(5) => 3^(color(red)(9)-color(blue)(5)) => 3^4$

The we can rewrite and calculate this expression as:

$3^4 => 3 xx 3 xx 3 xx 3 => 9 xx 9 => 81$

How do you simplify 3^9/3^53^9/3^5?