# ISEE Upper Level Quantitative : How to divide exponents

## Example Questions

### Example Question #1 : How To Divide Exponents

The expression is undefined.

The expression is undefined.

Explanation:

The numerator is undefined, since 0 raised to the power of 0 is an undefined quantity. Therefore, the entire expression is undefined.

### Example Question #1 : How To Divide Exponents

Column A                  Column B

The quantity in Column B is greater.

The quantities are equal.

The quantity in Column A is greater.

There is not enough information to determine the relationship between the quantities.

The quantity in Column B is greater.

Explanation:

Let's simplify both quantities first before we compare them.  becomes because the fractional exponent indicates a square root. We can simplify that by knowing that we can take the square roots of both the numerator and denominator, as shown by: . We can simplify further by taking the square roots (they're perfect squares) and get . Then, let's simplify Column B. To get rid of the negative exponent, we put the numerical expression on the denominator. There's still the fractional exponent at play, so we'll have a square root as well. It looks like this now: . We already simplified , so we can just plug in our answer, , into the denominator. Since we don't want a fraction in the denominator, we can multiply by the reciprocal of , which is 4 to get , which is just 4. Therefore, Column B is greater.

### Example Question #3 : How To Divide Exponents

Give the reciprocal of  in scientific notation.

Explanation:

The reciprocal of  is the quotient of 1 and the number;

This is not in scientific notation, so adjust.

### Example Question #1 : How To Divide Exponents

Give the reciprocal of  in scientific notation.

Explanation:

The reciprocal of  is the quotient of 1 and the number, or

This is not in scientific notation, so adjust:

### Example Question #5 : How To Divide Exponents

Column A                      Column B

The quantity in Column A is greater.

The relationship between the columns cannot be determined.

The quantities in both columns are equal.

The quantity in Column B is greater.