exponent

In mathematics, an exponent indicates how many times a base number is multiplied by itself. For example, in the expression (a^n), 'a' is the base and 'n' is the exponent. This operation is called exponentiation.12

An exponential function takes the form (y = a^x), where 'a' is a positive, non-one real number and 'x' is the exponent. If 'a' is greater than 1, the function shows growth; if 'a' is between 0 and 1, it shows decay.34

Scientific notation uses exponents to write very large or small numbers concisely, in the form (m \times 10^n), where 'm' is between 1 and 10, and 'n' is the exponent. The laws of exponents provide rules for manipulating expressions with exponents, such as adding exponents when multiplying bases.56