Exponents Part 2 - Exponents and Evaluating Expressions

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Taught by YourMathGal
  • Currently 3.0/5 Stars.
7641 views | 2 ratings
Part of video series
Meets NCTM Standards:
Lesson Summary:

In this lesson on exponents part 2, the focus is on evaluating variable expressions with exponents by replacing variable bases with negative numbers. The transcript provides examples of how to do this in two ways - by writing out the meaning of the expression first or by directly substituting the numerical value with the variable in parentheses. The key takeaway is to be careful when replacing the base with a negative number and to put the base in parentheses to avoid mistakes.

Lesson Description:

Shows how to evaluate variable expressions containing exponents,focusing on when you replace a variable base with negative numbers.

More free YouTube videos by Julie Harland are organized at http://yourmathgal.com

Questions answered by this video:
  • How do you evaluate variable expressions that have exponents?
  • How do you evaluate 2x^3 and -4x^2 when x = -3?
  • What does 3x^2 + 2xy^2 - 4y^2 equal when x = -2 and y = -5?
  • What are the two ways of finding the value of a variable expression?
  • Why does order of operations matter when evaluating a variable expression?
  • Staff Review

    • Currently 3.0/5 Stars.
    This is a slightly more advanced exponent lesson in which variable expressions are evaluated for different values of variables. Negative values of variables are used and parentheses are shown to be very important when evaluating a negative number to an exponent. Several rather complicated examples are evaluated and explained step by step.