can someone help me with multiplying numbers and variable?

[outer rampart]

i am in geometry but i’m still learning how to do the algebra basics a bit especially with multiplying numbers and variables!

[fresh valve]

@outer rampart so when you multiply two things with the same base (number) that has exponents, you simply add the exponents

here is an example i found online:

so in this case, we just add the exponents of x^3 and x^5 to get x^8

and since we multiplied the coefficients (3 and 4) to get 12, your final answer is 12x^8

[crimson shard]

ok so in short for any x^n (n is non-0 natural number) it means x*x*x... n times

so if we expand them, for example, expanding x^2*x^4=(x*x)*(x*x*x*x)

then using the associative property of multiplication, remove the brackets, get x*x*x*x*x*x

[crimson shard]

then using this again

x*x*x*x*x*x=x^6

which is basically adding the exponent in the first and second up

[native cape]

novA

novA