Well just looking at the problem you can take the first line of data (2 pounds of oranges for $3) and divide that to get how much one orange would be.
So:
$3.00 / 2 = $1.50
So now we have :
1 pound of oranges = $1.50
With this info we can take the $12 on the fourth line and divide it by the price of one pound of oranges ($1.50).
Like so:
$12.00 / $1.50
=
8
We can check this by inputting the 8 on the ?
If we do so we get 8 (8 pounds of oranges) x $1.50 (Price per 1 pound of oranges) = $12.00, which matches up with the $12 price the problem has given us.
Exponent is the expression in where you convert product factor expression into a shorter expression. So really you use it to make the question simpler and shorter(easier to understand).
