Without looking it up, I believe it comes from the fact that if you have a square, and it's, say 2 units long and 2 units wide, the area of the square is 4 square units. (if it was 2 ft x 2 ft then area is 4 square feet). 2 x 2 is the same as 22
Likewise to find a volume of a cube, multiply length by width by height. Since they are all the same, you have (side)3 is the volume. Something to the third power is called 'cubed'. Since we live in a three dimensional world, as far as we know, nobody has come up with a term for fourth power, fifth power, etc.
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Raising a number to the second power means you are squaring the number, multiplying it by itself. 2 squared= 2*2=4 3 squared=3*3=9
multiply the number by itselfRaising a number to the second power means you are squaring the number, multiplying it by itself. 2 squared= 2*2=43 squared=3*3=9
yes it is 2 to the second power is equal to 4
3x2 can be called "three times x squared", "three x squared", or "three times x to the power of two".
1/4 (1/2) squared = 1/2 x 1/2 = 1/4