I've been refreshing my maths over the last couple of weeks, and it's been a challenge since it has been a long time since I was actively using it (20+ years). Anyways, Khan Academy and old textbooks have been a lot of help, but I am stuck on a few things, so I hope you don't mind asking a few basic-ish questions.
I have gone over through the rules of exponents and it seems I got a good grasp on it, as far as challenges go on Khan Academy, but then I opened up an example from the old textbook (has no solution) and I am not sure about it. I need your help here.
This is the task - it says to simplify it:
52n−1−25n−1125n−1−53n−2
So, what I started doing was making 25n−1 in the numerator into a (52)n−1 which I got then as 52n−1 and from that numerator is 0 and I didn't go through the rest, since numerator == 0 is 0 in result.
But, I have a strong feeling this isn't right and that I made a mistake, but since I have no one to ask and textbook isn't of much help I have to ask you guys for help, guidance here.
Wolfram alpha reports simplified/alternative form as (−5)1−n but without further guidance, step-by-step or anything basically.
Answer
As noted by Musafa you have:
52n−1−52n−253n−3−53n−2
Now note that 52n−1=5×52n−2 and the same for 53n−2=5×53n−3. Using distributivity you can simplifies the fraction and finally you find the result of Wolfram. ( if you have some problem I can help).
52n−1−52n−253n−3−53n−2=52n−2(5−1)53n−3(1−5)=
=52n−2−3n+3(−1)=−(51−n)
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