As we advance further into algebra, we will often need to combine like terms to help us simply equations and expressions. In many cases you will need to combine terms that contain an exponent. This is normally pretty easy, but where it gets tricky is when we are required to multiply and divide exponents. If both values contain a common base it is pretty simple. If you need to multiply these values, just add the exponents. If you need to divide these values, just find the difference between the exponents. As you move on to advanced forms of math, we will show you what to do when the terms do not share a common base. It is a bit more complicated, but very workable.

This section of our website contains a series of lessons and practice worksheets that really hone in on how to perform the product and quotient operations between exponents that contain the same base variable. The product operation of exponents with the same base is a complete cinch, just find the sum of the exponents and do not change the base at all. When it comes to the quotient, following the same playbook just find the difference between the exponents. Work that is provided on these worksheets will give students practice with dividing and multiplying equations that contain exponential numbers. These worksheets explain how to multiply and divide exponents, as well as how to consolidate exponents that have the same base in order to simplify the expression.