FAQs

1. What is exponents? An expression, also called "power," of repeated multiplication of the same factor. Example, 2³ is a "power" with a base 2 and an exponent 3. This is what it means mathematically "two multiply by itself three times."  
2. How to read aⁿ? [Say it however you want!...] "a raised to the n-th power," "a raised to the power [of] n," or possibly "a raised to the exponent [of] n," or more briefly: "a to the n-th power" or "a to the power [of] n," or even more briefly: "a to the n."
3. What is x^½? A fractional "1/n" exponent means take the n-th root. So,  x^½ means "square root of x;"  x^1/3 is "cube root of x;"  x^1/n is "n-th root of x;" and so on..
4. Which models facilitate understanding of the concept [of exponent multiplication]?
5. How is exponents useful?