Answer:
Yes, they started with equal expressions.
Step-by-step explanation:
To simplify Vanessa's expression, we must rationalize the denominator. This means we must make the denominator x. We have

We need to multiply the denominator by x^(1/6) to make a whole x; this means we must multiply the numerator by x^(1/6) as well:

Now we can separate the x^(9/6) in the numerator:

William's expression is

We first use the product property to simplify inside parentheses:

Now we use the product of a product property to multiply the exponents:

Therefore they started with equal expressions.