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Addition and Subtraction of Powers

Addition and subtraction of powers follows the same rules as algebraic expressions: $a^{b} + a^{b} = 2 a^{b}$ . This is also the same if the power consists of numbers instead of variables.

Example 1

Calculate $3^{2} + 3^{2}$

You use what you have learned in algebra and get

3^{2} + 3^{2} = 2 \times 3^{2},

which is not the same as $6^{2} = 6 \times 6 = 36$ , but

2 \times \underset{3 \times 3}{\underset{⏟}{3^{2}}} = 2 \times 9 = 18 .

Subtraction is the same:

\begin{array}{l} b^{2} - b^{2} & = 0 \\ - b^{2} - b^{2} & = - 2 b^{2} \end{array}

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Activities 2

Activities 3