Exponents are a type of operation they tell us what to do with .
OK, what do they tell us to do? tell us to take a number and it by a certain number of . In other words exponents are basically multiplication. Do you remember how multiplication is basically repeated ? For example, is a shorthand way of writing two plus two plus two plus two, it's the same as four twos being together which equals a total of eight.

Now, let’s compare that to a similar exponent. That’s an exponent and in a minute we'll talk about why it looks like that and why the numbers are different sizes, but for now you just need to know that this exponent tells us to a number two and it four times. In other words, you take four twos and multiply them together, two times two times two times two, which would 16. So, shows repeated and show repeated and we'll see more examples of how exponents work in a minute
But first let's talk a little bit about why exponents look the way they do. Exponents involved numbers. The first number is the one that gets repeatedly a certain number of times and it's written full-size and it's called the . The second number tells us how many to multiply the together. It's written much and up at the of the line, like this, and it goes by several different names: it’s called the , or the , or very often it's called the .