Hi Jessie,

Let me try a³ b¹ times a² b⁵. You can write this as

a³ b¹ × a² b⁵ = (a × a × a) × b × (a × a) × (b × b × b × b × b)

What I have now is five a's and six b's and I can write this as

a³ b¹ × a² b⁵ = (a × a × a × a × a) × (b × b × b × b × b × b) = a⁵ b⁶.

Hence

a³ b¹ × a² b⁵ = a⁵ b⁶.

Notice that what I did was collect the three a's from a³ with the two a's from a² to get five a's. In other words

a³ × a² = a³⁺² = a⁵

Similarly

b¹ × b⁵ = b¹⁺⁵ = b⁶

so all I need to do is add the exponents.

Let's try another,

p⁵ q² × p² q³ = p⁵⁺² q ²⁺³ = p⁷ q⁵

I hope this helps,
Penny