How do you work out 25 equals 32?

Answer 1

I presume this is 25 = 32 stripped off it's formatting!

For a positive integer n, xn or x^n (or even x**n in some old usage) is mathematical notation for x*x*...*x*x where there are n occurances of x. [xn is also defined for negative, fractional etc values of n but that need not concern us now.]

Doing the multiplications one at a time,

25 = 2*2*2*2*2 = 4*2*2*2 = 8*2*2 =16*2 = 32.