simplify

**andyboy179** · May 4th 2011, 07:21 AM

hi,
i need to know how to simplify this:
x^8/x^2

im not sure how to do this as before i did it and wrote (x^8/x^2) as my answer and my teacher just wrote "ANSWERS?"

so where am i going wrong???

would be very grateful for some help please!! thanks!!

**Quacky** · May 4th 2011, 07:30 AM

Note that $4^7 = 4 \times 4\times 4\times 4\times 4\times 4\times 4$

And that $4^2 = 4 \times 4$

So $\frac{4^7}{4^2}=4\times 4\times 4\times 4\times 4 = 4^5$ by cancelling.

This leads to a general rule:

$\frac{x^a}{x^b}=x^{a-b}$

**rico3639** · May 4th 2011, 10:20 AM

Simply subtract the exponents from the base to get x^6

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