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When an exponent is a positive integer, that exponent indicates how many copies of the base are multiplied together. For example, 3 5 = 3 · 3 · 3 · 3 · 3 = 243. The base 3 appears 5 times in the multiplication, because the exponent is 5. Here, 243 is the 5th power of 3, or 3 raised to the 5th power.
Stevin printed little circles around the exponents of the different powers of one-tenth. That Stevin intended these encircled numerals to denote mere exponents is clear from the fact that he employed the same symbol for powers of algebraic quantities. He did not avoid fractional exponents; only negative exponents do not appear in his work. [7]
Robert Recorde: the Welshman who invented equality Archived 6 February 2022 at the Wayback Machine; Robert Recorde and other Welsh Mathematicians; 100 Welsh Heroes – Robert Recorde; Earliest Uses of Symbols of Relation; Earliest Known Uses of Some of the Words of Mathematics This contains numerous quotations from Recorde.
He is the first to use the term "exponent" and also included the following rules for calculating powers: = + and =. [8] The book contains a table of integers and powers of 2 that some have considered to be an early version of a logarithmic table. Stifel explicitly points out, that multiplication and division operations in the (lower) geometric ...
Descartes "invented the convention of representing unknowns in equations by x, y, and z, and knowns by a, b, and c". He also "pioneered the standard notation" that uses superscripts to show the powers or exponents; for example, the 2 used in x 2 to indicate x squared. [135] [136]: 19
Euler describes 18 such genres, with the general definition 2 m A, where A is the "exponent" of the genre (i.e. the sum of the exponents of 3 and 5) and 2 m (where "m is an indefinite number, small or large, so long as the sounds are perceptible" [114]), expresses that the relation holds independently of the number of octaves concerned.
John Wallis (/ ˈ w ɒ l ɪ s /; [2] Latin: Wallisius; 3 December [O.S. 23 November] 1616 – 8 November [O.S. 28 October] 1703) was an English clergyman and mathematician, who is given partial credit for the development of infinitesimal calculus.
Ralph Ernest Powers (April 27, 1875 – January 31, 1952) was an American amateur mathematician who worked on prime numbers. He is credited with discovering the Mersenne primes M 89 and M 107 , in 1911 and 1914 respectively.