Just need some clarification... (1 Viewer)

[BlueGas]

I know my answer to this question is wrong because apparently I'm not meant to expand where there's a minus in the power, but why? Also, if there was no minus in the power, am I still able to expand? Am I meant to only expand when there's no minus in the power?

 

[InteGrand]

You can't take that 3 into the brackets like that. You'd only be able to do that if the 3 and the brackets had the same power. (Relevant index law: .)

 

[BlueGas]

You can't take that 3 into the brackets like that. You'd only be able to do that if the 3 and the brackets had the same power. (Relevant index law: .)

What do you mean by "if the 3 and the brackets had the same power". I don't understand that part, let me give another example. If there was a different question like 3(x-6)^4, can you expand that or you can't?

 

[InteGrand]

What do you mean by "if the 3 and the brackets had the same power". I don't understand that part, let me give another example. If there was a different question like 3(x-6)^4, can you expand that or you can't?

You CAN'T do this:

However, if the expression were , it would be valid to say this is equal to . This is because that 3 was raised to the power 4, like the brackets.