A class is given this question on a test about expoenents: A squirell collects 12 nuts an hour for 12 hours on 12 days. Write an expression with and without exponents to find out how many nuts the squirells collected. Two students provided these answers.
Student A- 12^3, 12 x 3, 36 nuts
Student B- 12^3, 12x12x12, 1,728 nuts
Which student is correct? Explain what the student did incorrectly.
Student B is correct. The student correctly used exponents to represent the repeated multiplication. The expression 12^3 means 12 multiplied by itself three times, which is equivalent to 12x12x12=1,728 nuts.
Student A is incorrect. The student multiplied 12 by 3, which only represents the number of hours per day the squirrel collects nuts, not the total number of days. This calculation would only give the total number of nuts collected in one day, not over the course of 12 days.