1. When you have a exponent raised to another exponent....like (x2)4 ...there is a shortcut to simplfying the expression. The disabled-expression (x2)4 says take x2 multiply four of them. So what you really have is (x2* x2 * x2 * x2 ). This can be expanded to written as (x * x * x * x * x * x * x * x). When you use an exponent to gather the bases, you have x8 . Or you could have just mutliplied the powers and said (2 * 4) :)<br />Here are some more examples:<br />1. (x2)3 = x6<br />2. (t-2)2 = t-4<br />3. (m4)1 = m4<br />