Indices or Exponents are used to express the repeating factors within a
number.
Repeating factors can be found using prime
factorization (see Topics ), as in this example:
The prime factorization of 48 = 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 3.
In this example the number 2 is repeated 4 times. We can use 2 as the base
and 4 as the index shown in the example below, and say " 2 to the power 4".
Indices or exponents indicates how many times the base number appears as a
factor. |