Question

Which of the following expressions are equivalent? Justify your reasoning,

Answer 1

Answer:

B and D

Step-by-step explanation:

B:

Anything to a negative power means that it is 1/that to the positive power.

E.g. x^-1 = 1/x^1

In other words, anything to the power of a negative switches sides of a fraction (i.e. if in numerator moves to denominator and vice versa.)

1/x^-1 = 1/1/x^1 which is just equal to x, because there are x number of 1/xs in one (1/x * x =1) Therefore Option B is equal to just x.

D: (assuming the first given term is x^1/3 and not X1/3 (?) Correct me if I'm wrong).

x^1/3 * x^1/3 * x^1/3 is also equal to just x.

This is because when multiplying together terms with the same base (x in this case) the exponents just add together, so:

x^1/3 * x^1/3 * x^1/3 = x^(1/3 +1/3 +1/3) = x^1 = x.

Therefore B and D are equivalent because they both equal x.

Hope this helped!