When a real number b is multiplied by itself, the operation can be represented using an exponent. That is, b·b = b2. Furthermore, if b is multiplied by itself n times:
b·b·b· ... ·b = bnThe term bn is called the nth power of b. The number b is called the base number, the number n is called the exponent. The following laws apply to exponents:
bm·bn = bm+n(bm)n = bm·n
b0= 1, b ≠ 0
b-n = 1/bn , b ≠ 0
bm/bn = bm-n , b ≠ 0