Adding Exponents without Variables

Adding Exponents without Variables

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Good news: adding with exponents is simpler than it looks! Unless the terms have the same base variable and exponent, the correct approach is to calculate each term individually before adding. In this introductory quiz, we won't be using variables, so your task is easy: convert each term and add.

Here are a couple of examples:

• 2² + 4² = (2 × 2) + (4 × 4) = 4 + 16 = 20
• 2³ + 2⁴ = (2 × 2 × 2) + (2 × 2 × 2 × 2) = 8 + 16 = 24 (Here, notice that if you had just added the exponents to make 2⁷, the answer would have been 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 = 128, which is very wrong!)