Arvind Devarajan
Jul 28, 2017 · 1 min read

Interesting that I just saw this post after I answered the same question from my daughter a few days back. I wish I had seen this post before.

My explanation was naive, and went like this:

1 x 2 = 2¹

1 x 2 x 2 = 2²

1 x 2 x 2 x 2 = 2³

and so on.

Basically, as we keep increasing the number of times that 2 is repeated, we keep increasing the exponent by one.

Now, reading the same from the bottom:

1 x 2 x 2 x 2 = 2³

1 x 2 x 2 = 2²

1 x 2 = 2¹

1 = 2⁰ ← Using the same logic as above

Again, by reducing the number of repetitions of 2, we keep decreasing the exponent, until, there exists no more ‘2’s, and the exponent is 0.

Of course, ‘2’ can be any number, but this was just easier for me to explain her in layman-terms.

Thanks for a great article!!

    Arvind Devarajan

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    Software Architect, loves technology, and considers mathematics, science and philosophy as “three“ sides of the same coin.