Exponentiation
When it is a positive integer, the exponent indicates how many copies of the base are multiplied together. For example, . The base appears times in the repeated multiplication, because the exponent is . Here, is the "base", is the "exponent", and is the "power" or, more specifically, "3 raised to the 5th power".
Exponentiation
The important mathematical constant , sometimes called Euler's number, is approximately equal to 2.718 and is the base of the natural logarithm. Although exponentiation of "e" could, in principle, be treated the same as exponentiation of any other real number, such exponentials turn out to have particularly elegant and useful properties. Among other things, these properties allow exponentials of "e" to be generalized in a natural way to other types of exponents, such as complex numbers or even matrices, while coinciding with the familiar meaning of exponentiation with rational exponents.