Appendix

 

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Enhance Your Understanding

 

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Glossary

Unit 4: Exponents and Radicals

Benchmark a standard against which something can be compared or measured

Coefficient a number that a radical or variable is multiplied by; it is usually written in front.

Composite Numbers numbers with more than two factors (In other words, more factors than just 1 and itself. A composite number can be written as the product of two factors, where neither of which is itself.)

Cube Root a factor that is multiplied by itself three times to generate a perfect cube

Entire Radical a radical expression with all values sitting under the root sign

Exponent a superscripted number on the base of a power that represents how many times the base number is multiplied by itself

Exponent Laws the rules governing the combination of exponents

Factors two or more numbers that are multiplied resulting in a product

Greatest Common Factor the largest factor that is common to two or more numbers

Index indicates the type of root to be taken

Integers the Natural Numbers, their negatives, and zero; Z = {..., −3, −2, −1, 0, 1, 2, 3, ...}

Irrational Numbers numbers that cannot be expressed as fractions (Expressed as decimals, they neither terminate, nor repeat. = {non-terminating, non-repeating decimals} )

Least Common Multiple the smallest identical multiple shared between two or more numbers

Mixed Radical a radical expression, usually in simplest form, that has a numerical coefficient in front of the root sign and a value under the root sign

Multiples the result of an original number multiplied by an Integer

Natural Numbers are the counting numbers; N = {1, 2, 3, ...}

Negative Exponent the index value of a power is a negative number

Perfect Cube generated when three identical factors are multiplied together

Perfect Square generated when a factor is multiplied by itself

Powers indicate how many times a number is to be multiplied by itself (The base represents the number, and the index (or the exponent) is the number of times the base is multiplied by itself.)

Prime Factorization expressing a number as the product of its prime factors

Prime Number a number with exactly two factors, 1 and itself

Principal Square Root the positive value of the square root of a number

Radical In algebra, indicates the nth root of a quantity a is being taken, where a is the radicand.

Radicand the number under the root sign

Rational Exponents an exponent that is in the form of a fraction, , where

Rational Numbers numbers that can be expressed as fractions of the form , where a and b are integers, and b must not equal zero (Expressed as decimals, they either terminate or repeat. )

Real Numbers the set of the Rational and Irrational Numbers

Simplified Form an expression written in exact, reduced form

Square Root a factor that is multiplied by itself to generate a perfect square

Variables used to represent numerical values and are usually represented by letters in the alphabet, such as x, y, z, a, or b

Whole Numbers the Natural Numbers and zero; W = {0, 1, 2, 3, ...}

 

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