Exponents and Powers

• Do you know what the mass of earth is ?

• It is 5,970,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg!

• Distance between Sun and Saturn is 1,433,500,000,000 m.

• Distance between Saturn and Uranus is 1,439,000,000,000 m.

Can you read these numbers?

Exponents:

• These very large numbers are difficult to read, understand and compare.

• To make these numbers easy to read, understand and compare, we use Exponents. 

• We can write large numbers in a shorter form using exponents.

• Observe 10, 000 = 10 × 10 × 10 × 10 = 10⁴

The short notation 10⁴ stands for the product 10×10×10×10. 

 
Here ‘10’ is called the base and ‘4’ the exponent. 

 
The number 104 is read as 10 raised to the power of 4 or simply as fourth power of 10. 

 
10⁴  is called the exponential form of 10,000.

Example:

Which one is greater 2³  or 3²?

We have,

2³= 2 × 2 × 2 = 8

3²= 3 × 3 = 9.

Since 9 > 8, so 3² is greater than 2³.

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