The term exponent It has different uses and meanings. By exponent can be understood a person, a thing or a number that exposes; In the first two cases, exposing is a verb that does reference to present something, to make it known, while the mathematical concept is related to empowerment. Let's look at some example sentences: "Your uncle is the exponent who exemplifies how a person, with a little luck, can reach the top", "This liquid will be the exponent of how heat can alter the state of a substance", "To solve the product of a series of powers with the same base, it is possible to add their exponents and make a single power".
An exponent is, on the other hand, a prototype , the model of a virtue or quality. It is a thing or a person representative of the most characteristic of some group : “The mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli is the best exponent of the Italian voice”, “The exponent of tango was, is and will be Carlos Gardel”, “The Eiffel Tower is a faithful exponent of French architecture”.
In the field of mathematics, it is known as empowerment to the operation that involves a series of multiplications of a given number a certain number of times; the first component is called base and is represented by the letter to, while the second one is called exponent and is written as a n. In this case, an exponent is an algebraic expression or a simple number which denotes the power to which another expression or another number (the base) must be raised.
The exponent must be placed in the upper right part of the element that you want to raise. The way to read an operation of this type is "a raised to n", although it can also be said"to raised to the n"On the other hand, it is important to note that in the case of exponents 2 and 3, the correct readings are "to elevated squared" and "to elevated cubed", respectively.
Empowerment often creates confusion for people outside the mathematics, but it is a very simple operation, since it is based on multiplication, which, in turn, starts from the sum. If we take the example 2 raised to the cube (that is, to the third power), the steps to follow are the following: multiply to 2 by itself and, then, the result by two; this gives us 8. Why have we performed two steps if the exponent is 3? Actually, 3 steps have taken place, but 4.
Since our exponent (3) is a Natural number, that is, it belongs to the set of numbers that we use to count things in the real world, indicates the number of times the base (2) will appear in a multiplication Where will be the only factor. In this way, 2 raised to the cube becomes 2 x 2 x 2, which results 8. From this new representation it can be deduced that 2 raised to 1 is 2, and the same happens in all cases.
On the other hand, it is worth mentioning that any number other than 0 which is elevated to 0 results 1 . Instead, 0 raised to 0 It is a particular case that is undefined.
As mentioned in previous paragraphs, if you want to multiply powers that have the same base, it is possible to perform sum of its exponents and convert the expression into a single power; for example: 2 raised to 4 + 2 raised to the cube can be transformed into 2 raised to 7. When you have a power of another, as it would be (2 raised to 6) raised to 7, can be simplified by multiplying both exponents (6 x 7) and performing a single operation, which would leave us 2 raised to 42.
