5^9 ÷ 5^3

John is trying to solve the above expression. He takes the following steps:
John sees that this is a division problem, so he divides 5 by 5 and gets 1 as the base of his answer.
John divides 9 by 3 to get 3 as the exponent of his answer.
John arrives at the answer 13. Which step(s) did he make a mistake on and what was the mistake?

Question

5^9 ÷ 5^3 

John is trying to solve the above expression. He takes the following steps:
John sees that this is a division problem, so he divides 5 by 5 and gets 1 as the base of his answer.
John divides 9 by 3 to get 3 as the exponent of his answer.
John arrives at the answer 13. Which step(s) did he make a mistake on and what was the mistake?

anonymous · Answer

He did first step wrong and second too...

anonymous · Answer

Oh boy. Firstly he got one for the wrong division. You cant divide bases off like that. Then he divides exponents. Youre not supposed to do that either in this case. and he got 3 there.
So he went and put the 3 after the 1, writting 13. lol.

anonymous · Answer

HA HA HA.. LOL.. HE TUK 1^3 AS 13 :D

anonymous · Answer

$$\frac{x^a}{x^b} = x^{a - b}$$

anonymous · Answer

He divided bases directly neglecting the exponents..
Secondly, he exponents should be subtracted, but he divided that too...

anonymous · Answer

In simple language he did like this:

|dw:1340788269177:dw|

He just took the exponents as Multiply sign...