The increases (in cents) in cigarette taxes for 6 states in a 11-month period are 70,12,42,45,50,51,60,69,8,40,18

First step is to get rid of the square root. remember that a square root is the same as raising to the (1/2) power. see below: multiply exponents per exponent rules to get: remember you subtract exponents from the denominator and add exponents in the numerator so: simplify further: so a is the correct choice. if you don't understand this google exponent rules and it will you understand. look at the image results.