Powers are a way to show how many times a number is being multiplied by itself. For example, when we write 2^3, we mean "2 multiplied by itself 3 times". In this case, 2^3 = 2 _ 2 _ 2 = 8.
The number that is being multiplied (in this case, 2) is called the base, and the number that tells us how many times to multiply the base (in this case, 3) is called the exponent. The exponent shows how many times the base is being multiplied by itself.
Powers are a shorthand way of writing multiplication. For example, instead of writing 2 _ 2 _ 2 _ 2 _ 2, we can write 2^5, which means "2 multiplied by itself 5 times". The exponent (5) tells us how many times to multiply the base (2) by itself.
In addition to whole numbers, powers can also have fractional or negative exponents. For example, 2^(1/2) means "the square root of 2", and 2^(-2) means "1 divided by 2^2", which is 1/4.
Powers are an important part of mathematics and are used in many real-world situations, such as finding the area of a square, calculating the amount of money in an investment after a certain amount of time, or figuring out the energy generated by a wind turbine.