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In mathematics, exponentiation, denoted b n, is an operation involving two numbers: the base, b, and the exponent or power, n. [1] When n is a positive integer, exponentiation corresponds to repeated multiplication of the base: that is, b n is the product of multiplying n bases: [1] = ⏟.
For example, two numbers can be multiplied just by using a logarithm table and adding. These are often known as logarithmic properties, which are documented in the table below. [2] The first three operations below assume that x = b c and/or y = b d, so that log b (x) = c and log b (y) = d. Derivations also use the log definitions x = b log b (x ...
Moreover, as the derivative of f(x) evaluates to ln(b) b x by the properties of the exponential function, the chain rule implies that the derivative of log b x is given by [35] [37] = . That is, the slope of the tangent touching the graph of the base- b logarithm at the point ( x , log b ( x )) equals 1/( x ln( b )) .
The method is based on the observation that, for any integer >, one has: = {() /, /,. If the exponent n is zero then the answer is 1. If the exponent is negative then we can reuse the previous formula by rewriting the value using a positive exponent.
If exponentiation is indicated by stacked symbols using superscript notation, the usual rule is to work from the top down: [2] [7] a b c = a (b c) which typically is not equal to (a b) c. This convention is useful because there is a property of exponentiation that (a b) c = a bc, so it's unnecessary to use serial exponentiation for this.
It is also the form that is required when using tables of common logarithms. In normalized notation, the exponent n is negative for a number with absolute value between 0 and 1 (e.g. 0.5 is written as 5 × 10 −1). The 10 and exponent are often omitted when the exponent is 0.
One of the simplest definitions is: The exponential function is the unique differentiable function that equals its derivative, and takes the value 1 for the value 0 of its variable. This "conceptual" definition requires a uniqueness proof and an existence proof, but it allows an easy derivation of the main properties of the exponential function.
The exponential function e x for real values of x may be defined in a few different equivalent ways (see Characterizations of the exponential function). Several of these methods may be directly extended to give definitions of e z for complex values of z simply by substituting z in place of x and using the complex algebraic operations.
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