Question 118190
Congratulations on your progress in math! 
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v squared is written as {{{v^2}}} and it means that v is multiplied by itself. In other words,
v squared is v times v. It is usually written as:
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{{{v^2 = v*v}}}
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Notice that you have two v's multiplying each other. This is the idea of the 2 in the 
term {{{v^2}}}. It tells you to multiply two v's.
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p-cubed is very similar. It is written as {{{p^3}}} and it means that p is multiplied by itself
such that you have three p terms involved. The multiplication is p times p times p and it is usually 
written as:
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{{{p^3 = p*p*p}}}
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Suppose you were asked to find 5 squared. In writing this might be shown as {{{5^2}}}. How 
would you do that? The answer is found by multiplying two 5's ... 5 times 5 to get 25. So
you can say that 5 squared is 25. How about finding 5 cubed {{{5^3}}}? Just multiply 
three 5's together as in 5 times 5 times 5. 5 times 5 is 25 and multiplying that by another
5 gives you the answer 125. So you can say that 5 cubed is 125 or {{{5^3 = 125}}}.
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You may have noticed that squared means 2 and cubed means 3. You can extend this concept of
multiplication to 4 or 5 or 6 or any number. For example {{{x^4}}} means multiplying
four x's together as in x times x times x times x. (Note that this IS NOT the same as
four times x. Think about it ... {{{5^4 = 5*5*5*5 = 625}}} but 4 times 5 is only 20. Quite
a difference!)
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Hope this gives you a general idea of the meaning of squaring a number, cubing it, 
or raising it to the 4th power as in {{{x^4}}} or the 5th power as in {{{x^5 = x*x*x*x*x}}}.