A power is the product of a repeated factor. A power expression consists of two parts. The base is the repeated factor and the exponent indicates how many times the base is used as a factor. Consider, for example, the power expression with base 7 and exponent 4.

In this example, 7 is multiplied by itself 4 times. 7^4 = 7 * 7 * 7 * 7_4 Most powers are read in the same way, whether they are numeric or algebraic.

Expression	Example 1	Example 2
2^2	2 to the second power	2 squared
7^3	7 to the third power	7 cubed
5^4	5 raised to the power of 4	5 raised to the fourth power
m^4	m raised to the power of 4	m raised to the fourth power
x^9	x to the power of 9	x to the ninth power

This table contains two special cases — when a number or variable is raised to the power of 2 or 3, the power can be read as squared or cubed, respectively.