To raise a term with an exponent to another exponent, retain the base and multiply the exponents:

If a single cook can bake 5 large cakes per hour and the kitchen is available for 2 hours, a single cook can bake 5 x 2 = 10 large cakes during that time. 38 large cakes are needed for the party so \( \frac{38}{10} \) = 3\(\frac{4}{5}\) cooks are needed to bake the required number of large cakes.

If a single cook can bake 19 small cakes per hour and the kitchen is available for 2 hours, a single cook can bake 19 x 2 = 38 small cakes during that time. 310 small cakes are needed for the party so \( \frac{310}{38} \) = 8\(\frac{3}{19}\) cooks are needed to bake the required number of small cakes.

Because you can't employ a fractional cook, round the number of cooks needed for each type of cake up to the next whole number resulting in 4 + 9 = 13 cooks.

The commutative property states that, when adding or multiplying numbers, the order in which they're added or multiplied does not matter. For example, 3 + 4 and 4 + 3 give the same result, as do 3 x 4 and 4 x 3.

A factorial is the product of an integer and all the positive integers below it. To solve a fraction featuring factorials, expand the factorials and cancel out like numbers:

\( \frac{3!}{5!} \)
\( \frac{3 \times 2 \times 1}{5 \times 4 \times 3 \times 2 \times 1} \)
\( \frac{1}{5 \times 4} \)
\( \frac{1}{20} \)

The absolute value is the positive magnitude of a particular number or variable and is indicated by two vertical lines: \(\left|-5\right| = 5\). In the case of a variable absolute value (\(\left|a\right| = 5\)) the value of a can be either positive or negative (a = -5 or a = 5).