Exponents & Scientific Notation

How the lesson starts: Exponents & Scientific Notation

Moon-beans!
Welcome aboard Space Station Luna! Astronaut Kiko grows magic moon-beans. Every day, each bean splits into two! 1, 2, 4, 8… soon there are too many to count. Exponents are a shortcut for numbers like these!
What an exponent means
Day 1: 2 beans. Day 2: 4. Day 3: 8. Day 4: 16. 2⁴ means 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 = 16. The little raised number, the exponent, tells how many 2s to multiply. Watch out: 3⁴ is 81, not 3 × 4!
Multiplying powers
To multiply powers with the same base, add the exponents. 2³ × 2² is three 2s times two more 2s. That's five 2s in a row: 2⁵, which is 32.