Second week in precal isn’t bad as I thought it would be, it was still review but there was new stuff that involved exponents that kind of went in depth with regards to exponents. In addition to this, we learned about positive and negative rational exponents. I initially thought that it would be very complicated compare to what we’ve done before in Math 10. But apparently, we are pretty much doing rational exponents – but it’s just that the exponents are whole numbers – which these are actually fractions, but the difference is that their denominator is 1. For example:

 

 

 

 

 

Secondly, I learned some interesting “terms” that are helpful for me to remember whether the numerator or the denominator is the root and this is called, “Flower Power”. this might sound weird but every time I think of it, it automatically reminds me of that the denominator is the root. This is because the root is on the bottom, and whatever the denominator is, that would be the root. Basically, the root of the flower is on the bottom. Hence, the denominator is the bottom – which this would the root.

Thirdly, I learned that when I have a negative rational exponent, I have two ways to solve and evaluate it: it’s either I start by getting rid of the negative rational exponent or convert the expression into a radical together with the negative attached to an exponent. But in my case, I find that getting rid of the negative will make the expression easier to solve and evaluate so, I don’t get confused with a negative sign that is part a base too. Here’s an illustration on how I solve an expression with this method in a bit more detailed: