When multiplying exponents, such as $x$ times $x$ , would the answer be $x^2$ or $2x$ ?

Question

38989 views around the world

You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License

Answer 1 · 2016-04-12T03:28:55

$x^2$

Recall that an exponent tells us how many times a value is multiplied by itself.

For example:

$color(red)2^color(blue)2$ means to multiply $color(red)2$ by itself $color(blue)("two")$ times
$color(red)4^color(blue)1$ means to multiply $color(red)4$ by itself $color(blue)("once")$
$color(red)x^color(blue)3$ means to multiply $color(red)x$ by itself $color(blue)("three")$ times

In your case, $x^2$ means that $x$ is multiplied by itself $2$ times, or " $x*x$ ".

In contrast, $2x$ means $x$ is multiplied by $2$ . You can think of $2x$ as being " $x+x$ " ( $x$ plus $x$ ).

When multiplying exponents, such as xx times xx, would the answer be x^2x^2 or 2x2x?