²Today we started Chapter 8 about Exponents and Exponential Functions.

We covered the first two sections: Multiplocation Properties of Exponents, and Zero and Negative Exponents.

Basic take-aways are:

• a^m * a^n = a^ (m+n)
• (a^m)^n = a^(m*n)
• (a * b)^m = a^m * a^n
• a^0 = 1, a ≠0
• a^(-n) = 1 / a^n, a ≠0

I didn’t get chance to cover the real world use cases. One example is like, there are two circular fields, one’s radium is twice the other, what is the area ratio. To solve it, you assume the smaller one’s radium as r, so the ratio is π(2r)²/πr² = 4.

I also had less time to go over the exponential functions, so if the student feels uncomfortable about the homework questions on exponential functions, they can skip. But if the parent can help explain, that will be great. I will circle back next time.

Homework is below:

http://blog.newtonchineseschool.org/wangweidong/files/2011/10/Math7_Fall_HW_L4.pdf