Question 78476: what does^this mean in an equation? I haven't been to school in 20 years, I am just now going back to college Answer by bucky(2189) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! Since in ordinary keyboarding you can't make an exponent, it is common practice to use
the ^ symbol to indicate that what follows it is an exponent. Examples:
.
x^2 is the same as
.
5^(2x-3) is the same as
.
y^-2 means
.
You have to be careful with using this method. It's always a good idea to use parentheses
to make sure that you are specifying the exponent correctly. For example, if you write:
.
4^x-3
.
then by the rules of algebra it means but you might have wanted it to mean:
. . In this latter case you should have written it as 4^(x-3).
.
In a string of terms you might say:
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x^4 + 2x^3 - 4x^2 + 2x - 3
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this should be interpreted as:
.
.
And as a final case x^y^2 is
.
Hope this helps you to understand the use of the ^ symbol
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