What is 36y4.5y2?

Please explain, thank you!

2 Answers
Mar 26, 2018

The simplified answer is 18y6.

Explanation:

Since multiplication is commutative (meaning 35 is the same as 53), you can move around the terms, and then combine the constants.

To simplify the y terms, use the law of exponents:

xmxn=xm+n

Now here's our expression (I added color-coding for each term so it's easier to follow:

=36y40.5y2

=36y40.5y2

=360.5y4y2

=18y4y2

=18y4+2

=18y6

=18y6

This is the simplified result. Hope this helped!

Mar 26, 2018

The answer is 18y6, with the explanation below.

Explanation:

A good way to understand what's going on here is to write out all of the multipliers (I'm going to avoid expanding all of the exponents):

36y40.5y2=36y40.5y2

Now, we can start grouping like elements:

(360.5)(y4y2)=18(y4y2)

As you may or may not know, when you multiply two exponents together with the same base, you simply add the values of the powers together. This way:

18(y4y2)=18(y4+2)

18y6