Exponential form - Math Central

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Question from hanna, a student:

hi,
well i am really bad in math and i have a math paper and i was just wondering what 3x3x3x3x3 was in exponential form and what is exponential in a way a person like me would understand?

byesss :)

Hanna,

There is a shorthand notation for some numerical operations, for example 5 × 5 is written 5² and 5 × 5 × 5 is written 5³. This is called exponential notation. In 5³, 5 is called the base and 3 the exponent. The exponent indicates the number of times the base is multiplied by itself.

I hope this helps,
Penny

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