Laws of Exponents

1. Sep 26, 2004

majinknight

Hi, i am having a little trouble with a couple of math questions, i thought i was doing them right but cannot get the answer. Ok the questions are:

(p^2q+ pq^3)^3 / p^3q^4

Now I do not know what to do, the answer i was told is suppose to be:

(p+q^2)^3 / q

I just dont know how to get that, if someone could walk me through this one question it would be appreciated.

2. Sep 26, 2004

Janus

Staff Emeritus

$$\frac{(p^2q+pq^3)^3}{p^3q^4}$$

Factor out pq in the numerator:

$$\frac{(pq(p+q^2))^3}{p^3q^4}$$

same as:

$$\frac{(pq)^3(p+q^2)^3}{p^3q^4}$$

$$\frac{p^3q^3(p+q^2)^3}{p^3q^4}$$

apply division rule for exponents:

$$\frac{(p+q^2)^3}{q}$$

3. Sep 26, 2004

majinknight

Oh my god, thank you, i completly understand know. I had sort of done what you had but instead did not factor and so it just kept getting more complicated and confusing me. Thank you so much.

4. Sep 26, 2004

Pyrrhus

What did you do? expand it?, if you had you will get the same just with the numerador expanded, but it will be more work.