How to add numbers with same base but unknown exponents?

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I'm taking a university math course despite knowing better. Among the straightforward problems I encountered the following:

Simplify:

$$5^x +5^{x+2}$$

The answer is supposed to be $26*5^x$

How am I supposed to arrive at this conclusion, do I interpret this as some kind of short geometric sum?

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$5^{x}+5^{x+2}=5^{x}+5^{x}\cdot 5^{2}=5^{x}(1+5^{2})=5^{x}\cdot 26$