What does to the power mean in math?

Answer 1

For a positive number, n, x raised to the power n is 1 multiplied by x n times. It is often wrongly described as x multiplied by itself n times.

Thus, x^3 = x*x*x [ or 1*x*x*x] but not

x multiplied by x multiplied by x multiplied by x which would be x^4.

For negative integers, m, x^m = (1/x)^m = 1/(x^m)

x^0 = 1 for all non-zero x.

For fractional powers,

x^(m/n) = the nth root of x^m or, equivalently, (nth root of x)^m.