Exponents & Powers

What this lesson covers

Exponents & Powers is a 10-part Class 7 Mathematics lesson. Each part makes one point and then hands over to the next, so it can be read in a sitting or picked up again at the part you stopped on. It defines the idea in plain words before using it, works through an example step by step, breaks the topic into its parts and compares them, shows where it is used outside the textbook, names the mistakes that cost marks in an exam, ends with a recap of what to remember.

How it begins

An exponent (or index) says how many times to multiply a number by itself. 2⁵ = 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 = 32The 2 is the base, the 5 is the exponent. Be careful: 2⁵ is not 2 × 5. Exponents grow far faster than multiplication: 2¹⁰ is already 1024.

The 10 parts

1. A shorthand for repeated multiplication
2. The laws of exponents
3. Why the laws work
4. Why anything to the power zero is 1
5. A worked simplification
6. Standard form
7. Where powers appear
8. Where it usually goes wrong
9. What to remember
10. Watch one worked through