Exponent

Exponents tell you how many times a factor is multiplied.

x * x * x (x times x times x)

Can be written as x³ or x^3 , when we write the multiplication in this way, we call it an exponent.

To multiply exponents we add them, for example, consider we have

x² * x³

what is this equal to?

x⁵

why is this? Well if we write it out, it becomes obvious


x² * x³

=


(x*x) * (x*x*x) or x⁵

if we have

5x² * 2x³

Then the bottom numbers (or base numbers) are multiplied, while the exponents are added


5x² * 2x³
=
10x⁵