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:
Exponential function
The importance of the exponential function in mathematics and the sciences stems mainly from its definition as the unique function which is equal to its derivative and is equal to 1 when . That is,