Exponent Definition

In this section, we continue to work with whole numbers. We will first discuss the exponent definition. What exactly is an exponent, and why do we use exponents in math? Exponents give us a convenient way to write repeated multiplication of the same whole number. Let’s suppose we had the following scenario:
5 x 5 x 5 x 5 x 5 x 5
We can see that we have a lot of 5's being multiplied together. Using exponents, we can easily write this repeated multiplication of 5 as: 5⁶
5, the factor which is repeatedly multiplied by itself is known as the base. This is the larger number when working with exponents. The 6 is known as our exponent and represents the number of times 5 is multiplied by itself. The exponent is the smaller number placed above the base on the right side. Simply put, our base is the larger number and represents the number or factor involved in the repeated multiplication. The exponent or smaller number sits on top of the base and represents the number of factors of the base.
Example 1: Identify the base and exponent 9³
9, the larger number is the base. This is the factor that is involved in the repeated multiplication
3, the smaller number is the exponent. This is the number of factors of our base, 9 is multiplied by itself 3 times.
9³ = 9 x 9 x 9 - Three Factors of Nine