Alice and Aaron are working as a pair in math class. They decide to each answer the question asked and compare solutions. Their answers were as follows:
alice:7^3 x 7^9=7^27 araon:7^3 x 7^9= 7^12
They are not sure why they got two different answers. Who has the correct solution and what did the person do that missed it that was incorrect?
Alice has the correct solution. The reason why Aaron got the wrong answer is because he incorrectly added the exponents when multiplying the two numbers with the same base.
The correct way to multiply two numbers with the same base is to add the exponents. In this case:
7^3 x 7^9 = 7^(3+9) = 7^12
Therefore, Alice's solution is correct and Aaron's solution is incorrect.