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.

To multiply terms with exponents, the base of both exponents must be the same. In this case they are so multiply the coefficients and add the exponents:

8x² x x²
(8 x 1)x^{(2 + 2)}
8x⁴

To add these distances, they must share the same unit so first you need to first convert the swim distance from meters (m) to kilometers (km) before adding it to the bike and run distances which are already in km. To convert 300 meters to kilometers, divide the distance by 1000 to get 0.3km then add the remaining distances:

total distance = swim + bike + run
total distance = 0.3km + 50.8km + 7.8km
total distance = 58.9km

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

To divide fractions, invert the second fraction and then multiply:

\( \frac{4}{7} \) ÷ \( \frac{4}{5} \) = \( \frac{4}{7} \) x \( \frac{5}{4} \)

To multiply fractions, multiply the numerators together and then multiply the denominators together:

\( \frac{4}{7} \) x \( \frac{5}{4} \) = \( \frac{4 x 5}{7 x 4} \) = \( \frac{20}{28} \) = \(\frac{5}{7}\)