Illustrative Mathematics Unit 6.6, Lesson 12: Meaning of Exponents

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Illustrative Math
Grade 6

Lesson 12: Meaning of Exponents

Let’s see how exponents show repeated multiplication.

Illustrative Math Unit 6.6, Lesson 12 (printable worksheets)

Lesson 12 Summary

The following diagram shows exponents as repeated multiplication.

Lesson 12.1 Notice and Wonder: Dots and Lines

What do you notice? What do you wonder?

• See Video for Whole Lesson

Scroll down the page for the solutions to the “Are you ready for more?” section.

Lesson 12.2 The Genie’s Offer

You are walking along and you find a brass bottle that looks really, really old. There appears to be some writing on the bottle! You try to clean off some dirt to read it better. A genie appears! He is so happy to be free. He wants to repay you. He offers two ways to repay you and you must choose one:

• He will give you $50,000; or
• He will give you one magical $1 coin. The magic coin will turn into 2 coins on the first day. The 2 coins will turn into 4 coins on the second day. On the third day, the 4 coins will magically turn into 8 coins. The genie explains that the magic coins will continue this pattern for 28 days.
  

1. The number of coins on the third day will be 2 · 2 · 2. Can you write another expression using exponents for the number of coins there will be on the third day?
2. What do 2⁵ and 2⁶ represent in this situation? Evaluate 2⁵ and 2⁶ without a calculator.
3. How many days would it take for the number of magical coins to exceed $50,000?
4. Will the value of the magical coins exceed a million dollars within the 28 days? Explain or show your reasoning. See Applet

Are you ready for more?

A scientist is growing a colony of bacteria in a petri dish. She knows that the bacteria are growing and that the number of bacteria doubles every hour.
When she leaves the lab at 5 p.m., there are 100 bacteria in the dish. When she comes back the next morning at 9 a.m., the dish is completely full of bacteria. At what time was the dish half full?

• Show Answer

  The dish is completely full at 9 a.m.
  Since the dish doubles every hour, this means that an hour before 9 a.m. the dish would have been half full. Therefore, the dish was half full at 8 a.m.

Lesson 12.3 Make 81

1. Here are some expressions. All but one of them equals 16. Find the one that is not equal to 16 and explain how you know.
   2³ · 2
   4²
   2⁵/2
   8²
   
2. Write three expressions containing exponents so that each expression equals 81.

Lesson 12 Practice Problems

1. Select all expressions that are equivalent to 64.
   A. 2⁶
   B. 2⁸
   C. 4³
   D. 8²
   E. 16⁴
   F. 32²
   
2. Select all the expressions that are equivalent to 2⁴.
   A. 7
   B. 4³
   C. 12
   D. 81
   E. 64
   F. 9²
   
3. 4⁵ is equal to 1,024. Evaluate the following expressions.
   a. 4⁶
   b. 4⁴
   c. 4³ · 4²
   
4. 6³ = 216. Using exponents, write three more expressions whose value is 216.
   
5. Find two different ways to rewrite 3xy + 6yz using the distributive property.
   
6. Solve each equation.
   a. a - 2.01 = 5.5
   b. b + 2.01 = 5.5
   c. 10c = 13.71
   d. 100d = 13.71
   
7. Which expressions represent the total area of the large rectangle? Select all that apply.
   A. 6(m + n)
   B. 6n + m
   C. 6n + 6m
   D. 6mn
   E. (n + m)6
   

The Open Up Resources math curriculum is free to download from the Open Up Resources website and is also available from Illustrative Mathematics.

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