## mindreader67 one year ago (-6) with exponent of 12 times (-6) with exponent of 5 times (-6) with exponent of 2?

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1. jollysailorbold

Hi, welcome to openstudy:) When you multiply a power with the same base, you just add the exponenets together. In this case: $-6^{12} \times -6^5 \times -6^2$ you would add 12 by 5 by 2: $(-6)^{12+5+2}$ Can you do the rest from here?

2. jollysailorbold

yes but the -6's are all in perentheses does that mean anything ?

4. jollysailorbold

Not really. You would get $(-6)^{19}$ You see, it's okay if it's a negative, because all three of them are negative. They have to be exactly the same for you to be able to add the exponents like that :) Does that help?

okay and if they weren't exactly the same what would u do? like say one of the -6's is a 4

6. jollysailorbold

The parentheses just indicate that the negative is part of the 6, so that it isn't confused with a subtraction sign. If one of the -6's was a 4, lets say $(−6)^{12} × (−6)^{5} × (4)^2$ Then it would be $(−6)^{12+5} × (4)^2$ or just $(−6)^{17} × (4)^2$ To simplify further, you add the powers together and multiply the bases, so $(−6)^{17} × (4)^2 = -24^{19}$

7. jollysailorbold

Does that make sense?

8. jollysailorbold

Yes? No? I hope this helped :)