a math question?

Question

in math, when subtracting a number from an exponent, what would the answer be? in this case, x - 3

Answer 1

The "x" in this case is called a variable. Exponents would be the powers of numbers, for example, in: x² - 9, the exponent is the 2. That means you have x · x (x multiplied by x), so you just write that as an x² (x squared).

But back to your question, if you don't know what your x value is, you can't know what 3 less than your x value is.

If your x was 10, then (x - 3) would be 10 - 3 = 7.

If your x was 65,002, then (x - 3) would be 65,002 - 3 = 64,999.

"x" means you have a number whose value is unknown, so we just use a letter to represent it. This comes in handy in graphs, when you can change the x value to get a different y value and therefore, get a different point, or coordinate.

So whether you x is in an exponent or not, it does not matter. Your x is your x, and unless you make it equal to something else, you cannot find it's value.

I hope this helped!

Answer 2

If you take for example x^5 and you subtract 2 from the exponent 5, you simply get x^(5-2) = x^3

If you have 2^x and you subtract 3 from the exponent x you get 2^(x-3).

2^3/2^4 = 2^(3-4) = 2^-1 = 1/2^1 = 1/2

Answer 3

Did you mean "when subtracting a number from an UNKNOWN"? If so llamallord has it right. An "exponent" is the power to which a number is raised, or in other words, how many times it is multiplied times itself. In your example it is understood as 1 and not written. If written it would be X^1 - 3^1.

Answer 4

Where is the exponent? When subtracting a number from a variable no actual combining can be done. You leave it and work with it as is.

Answer 5

if you have a^x and a^(x-3)= a^x/a^3

Answer 6

X-3 is always X-3 until you discover what X represents.