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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.
When exponents were introduced in the 16th and 17th centuries, they were given precedence over both addition and multiplication and placed as a superscript to the right of their base. [2] Thus 3 + 5 2 = 28 and 3 × 5 2 = 75. These conventions exist to avoid notational ambiguity while allowing notation to remain brief. [4]
Exponentiation by squaring can be viewed as a suboptimal addition-chain exponentiation algorithm: it computes the exponent by an addition chain consisting of repeated exponent doublings (squarings) and/or incrementing exponents by one (multiplying by x) only.
When multiplication is repeated, the resulting operation is known as exponentiation. For instance, the product of three factors of two (2×2×2) is "two raised to the third power", and is denoted by 2 3, a two with a superscript three. In this example, the number two is the base, and three is the exponent. [26]
Logarithms were introduced by John Napier in 1614 as a means of simplifying calculations. [1] They were rapidly adopted by navigators, scientists, engineers, surveyors, and others to perform high-accuracy computations more easily. Using logarithm tables, tedious multi-digit multiplication steps can be replaced by table look-ups and simpler ...
A quadratic equation is one which includes a term with an exponent of 2, for example, , [40] and no term with higher exponent. The name derives from the Latin quadrus , meaning square. [ 41 ] In general, a quadratic equation can be expressed in the form a x 2 + b x + c = 0 {\displaystyle ax^{2}+bx+c=0} , [ 42 ] where a is not zero (if it were ...
In mathematics, an algebraic expression is an expression built up from constants (usually, algebraic numbers) variables, and the basic algebraic operations: addition (+), subtraction (-), multiplication (×), division (÷), whole number powers, and roots (fractional powers).
Logarithms and exponentials with the same base cancel each other. This is true because logarithms and exponentials are inverse operations—much like the same way multiplication and division are inverse operations, and addition and subtraction are inverse operations.