a class is given this question on a test about exponents: A squirrel 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 squirrel collected. two students provided these answers. Which student is correct? Explain what the incorrect student did incorrectly.
The correct way to express the number of nuts collected by the squirrel is:
With exponents: (12^2) * 12
Explanation: The squirrel collects 12 nuts per hour for 12 hours each day for a total of 144 nuts per day. Since this is repeated for 12 days, we multiply 144 by 12 to get the total number of nuts collected.
Without exponents: 12 * 12 * 12
Explanation: The squirrel collects 12 nuts per hour for 12 hours each day for a total of 144 nuts per day. Since this is repeated for 12 days, we multiply 144 by 12 to get the total number of nuts collected.
In this case, both students are correct in terms of what they wrote, but the second student's expression is more unclear since they repeated the multiplication symbol three times instead of using exponents to signify the number of times it needs to be multiplied.