Exponentiation
Exponentiation is a mathematical operation, written as , involving two numbers, the "base" and the "exponent" . When is a positive integer, exponentiation corresponds to repeated multiplication of the base: that is, is the product of multiplying bases:
Exponentiation
Apart from matrices, more general linear operators can also be exponentiated. An example is the derivative operator of calculus, formula_142, which is a linear operator acting on functions formula_25 to give a new function formula_144. The "n"-th power of the differentiation operator is the "n"-th derivative: