Log in cpime-s049 7 years agoPosted 7 years ago. Direct link to cpime-s049's post “why is 5 to the 0 power 1...” why is 5 to the 0 power 1? • (152 votes) preeti 6 years agoPosted 6 years ago. Direct link to preeti's post “Good question! Look at th...” Good question! Look at the following exponents: Take a look at this: Hope this helps! (214 votes) Trinity Thorn 6 years agoPosted 6 years ago. Direct link to Trinity Thorn's post “i get confused and multip...” i get confused and multiply ex. 5 x 2 =10 when its 25 how can i rember to times it by 2 also how is 5 times 0 equal to 1? ':( • (33 votes) Hector Soto 6 years agoPosted 6 years ago. Direct link to Hector Soto's post “So for exponents you need...” So for exponents you need to think about it a bit different. I will use the example you gave of 5 raised to the 2nd exponent (5^2) for my explanation. The exponent (the number 2) is the number of bases (the number 5) you multiply together. So for 5^2, you would use two 5's and multiply them together which is simply 5x5=25. So for another example if we lower the exponent to 1, we would be looking at 5^1. Well let's apply the same principle of using just one 5, which is simply 5=5. Let's move on to your second question which is a touch more complicated. I will simplify it for you though. Once your exponent is less than 1 the rules get a little different and you start dealing with fractions. 5^0 = 5*(1/5) = 1. The exponent in this case is the number + 1 that you divide the base number by. I illustrated it with multiplying it by a fraction, but the principle is still the same. I know this can be a difficult topic to understand at first, and explanation isn't the exact proof/theorem, but I do hope it helps you get a basic understanding of exponents. (66 votes) 25MHAAR 5 years agoPosted 5 years ago. Direct link to 25MHAAR's post “how does 5 with the expon...” how does 5 with the exponent of 0 have the answer of 1. • (18 votes) William Wang 5 years agoPosted 5 years ago. Direct link to William Wang's post “Well, I think that CycoCy...” Well, I think that CycoCyco answered it somewhat well, but here's another explanation from me: When having an exponent (such as 5 to the power of 2), you're setting up 5^2, or 5 * 5, which equals one. Same with having five raised to the power of one, which equals five. In earlier grades, you leaned that 5 * 0 = 0. But in math, 5^0 = 1, because you're not raising the power by anything. I hope this explanation helped. (28 votes) ♥ [っ◔◡◔]っ ♥ 3 years agoPosted 3 years ago. Direct link to ♥ [っ◔◡◔]っ ♥'s post “I dont understand why 5'0...” I dont understand why 5'0 pwr is = to 1 • (17 votes) VY_Loves_Math 3 years agoPosted 3 years ago. Direct link to VY_Loves_Math's post “Hi @adam.39594, I'd sugge...” Hi @adam.39594, I'd suggest that you look at the video in Exponents, The Zeroth Power. I'm not sure if we're allowed to put links, so go look at that video... Or search The Zeroth Power in Khan Academy. Hope this helps! (17 votes) Hannah 7 years agoPosted 7 years ago. Direct link to Hannah's post “What about negative expon...” What about negative exponents? How do you figure those out? • (14 votes) Dominic Nguyen 7 years agoPosted 7 years ago. Direct link to Dominic Nguyen's post “Because 5^3=1255^2=25...” Because (23 votes) Elle B. a year agoPosted a year ago. Direct link to Elle B.'s post “Idk why the power of 0 is...” Idk why the power of 0 is always 1 but it makes it easier for me. • (14 votes) himansu.kandwal a month agoPosted a month ago. Direct link to himansu.kandwal's post “The power of 0 is always ...” The power of 0 is always one because when there is a power we can add one to the multiplication and nothing changes. eg. 2^2 = 2 * 2 = 4 But when you do a power of 0, then the 1 is left. eg. 2^0 = 1 (times 0 2's)= 1 Sal explained this in this video: https://www.khanacademy.org/math/pre-algebra/xb4832e56:exponents-intro-and-order-of-operations/xb4832e56:powers-of-whole-numbers/v/the-zeroth-power (2 votes) RAVENCLAWGAMER24 3 years agoPosted 3 years ago. Direct link to RAVENCLAWGAMER24's post “how is 5 to the 0 power n...” how is 5 to the 0 power not 0 because 5 zero times is 0 • (9 votes) Ian Pulizzotto 3 years agoPosted 3 years ago. Direct link to Ian Pulizzotto's post “In general, x to the y po...” In general, x to the y power is usually not x times y. So it is a mistake to assume that 5 to the 0 power is 5 times 0. Look at the following pattern: 5^4 = 5 * 5 * 5 * 5 As we can see, each time the exponent goes down by 1, the answer is divided by 5. Continuing the pattern gives 5^0 = 5/5 = 1. Have a blessed, wonderful day! (21 votes) 30ktran16 9 months agoPosted 9 months ago. Direct link to 30ktran16's post “I don’t get 5 to the powe...” I don’t get 5 to the power 0 • (11 votes) Philip 9 months agoPosted 9 months ago. Direct link to Philip's post “Any positive value to the...” Any positive value to the power of 0 equals 1. The reason is that, since exponents represent repeated multiplication, then applying the power of 0 is essentially dividing a value by itself the specific number of times. For example, if we have 5^0, then that means we are multiplying it by its reciprocal the specific number of times it got multiplied. So when we have 5^0, are multiplying 5 by itself a specific number of times, then dividing by 5 the same exact number of times it got multiplied. Therefore, every single time a 5 was multiplied, it will be removed by division through the reciprocal, ending up with a 1. (15 votes) Kaleb Amar 6 years agoPosted 6 years ago. Direct link to Kaleb Amar's post “I keep on getting confuse...” I keep on getting confused with the base and the exponent. Can someone help? • (10 votes) Zen 6 years agoPosted 6 years ago. Direct link to Zen's post “The base is the number be...” The base is the number below for example in 5^2, 5 is the base and 2 is the exponent. Which means that this would expand to 5 x 5 = 25. The exponent tells you how many times the base will be multiplied by itself, we knew that the 5 would be multiplied by itself twice because the exponent was 2. (12 votes) bascoari000 4 years agoPosted 4 years ago. Direct link to bascoari000's post “how do you add or multipl...” how do you add or multiply exponents together without getting rid of the exponents? for example if you had -2x^4+4x^2+5 -7x^5 would you add all the exponents together or would you leave them by their selves? • (7 votes) Kim Seidel 4 years agoPosted 4 years ago. Direct link to Kim Seidel's post “You have 4 unlike terms. ...” You have 4 unlike terms. You can't combine any of them. (9 votes)Want to join the conversation?
2^4 = 16
2^3 = 8
2^2 = 4
2^1 = 2
2^0 = __
Respective to the pattern, what comes next?! 1!
2^(m-n) = 2^m/2^n
If m = n...
2^(1-1) = 2^1/2^1
2^0 = 1
- V
5^3=125
5^2=25
5^1=5
5^0=1
5^-1=.2
Just divide.
2^2 = 1 * 2 * 2 = 4
5^3 = 5 * 5 * 5 = (5 * 5 * 5 * 5)/5
5^2 = 5 * 5 = (5 * 5 * 5)/5
5^1 = 5 = (5 * 5)/5
Remember, exponents represent repetitive multiplication of a common base. You only change an exponent if you are multiplying or dividing a common base. In your expression, the operation is addition/subtraction. So, the exponents can't be changed.
Hope this helps.
See Also
Multiplication Calculator