Video Transcript
Evaluate 12 to the zero power.
There’s a rule for this. We know what everything to the zero power is. But let’s imagine that you didn’t remember that. And you didn’t know. But you did remember that 𝑥 to the 𝑎 power times 𝑥 to the 𝑏 power is the same thing as 𝑥 to the 𝑎 plus 𝑏 power. And you do know that 12 to the first power equals 12. And that means 12 to the first power times 12 to the zero power has to equal 12 to the one plus zero. One plus zero equals one. And 12 to the first power equals 12.
We now have a statement that says 12 times 12 to the zero power equals 12. If we want to know what 12 to the zero power is, we could divide the left side of the equation by 12 and the right side of the equation by 12. 12 divided by 12 cancels out. And 12 to the zero power equals 12 divided by 12, which is one.
12 to the zero power equals one. In fact, anything to the zero power equals one.
