Why you need exponents?

Answer 1

Every computer programmer have to learn math specially exponents,

and here is the reason

computer memory is strictly limited by the amount of hardware you have.

so you need to know the total amount of numbers you can store in one block of memory (in computer numbers can represent any thing audio-images-text..)

and also in cracking passwords in a way called brute force where all the possible letters and numbers are tried,

and to do that you can use the simple function :

x = y^n

Where x is the total amount of numbers(values) that can be represented(stored) in a block of memory that its size(store places) is n,

y is the count of digits in the counting system you use for example

binary = 2 (0 or 1)

decimal = 10 (0 or 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 or 8 or 9)

hexadecimal = 16 (0 or 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 or 8 or 9 or a or b or c or d or e or f)

for example to know the maximum value you can represnt by a 2 digits(boxes) decimal number:

value = 10^2 = 100 (from 0 to 99)