Exponent Calculator
Raise any base to any power, including negative and fractional exponents. Get the result plus the expanded form, and see what fractional powers mean as roots.
baseexponent
210 equals
1,024
2 multiplied by itself 10 times
An exponent tells you how many times to multiply the base by itself. A negative exponent gives the reciprocal (x⁻ⁿ = 1 ÷ xⁿ), and a fractional exponent is a root (x^(1/n) is the n-th root of x). Any non-zero number to the power 0 equals 1.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I calculate an exponent?
An exponent tells you how many times to multiply the base by itself. So 2⁵ = 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 = 32. Enter the base and the exponent above and the calculator returns the result.
What does a negative exponent mean?
A negative exponent gives the reciprocal of the positive power: x⁻ⁿ = 1 ÷ xⁿ. For example, 2⁻³ = 1 ÷ 2³ = 1 ÷ 8 = 0.125. The calculator handles negative exponents directly.
What is a fractional exponent?
A fractional exponent represents a root. x^(1/n) is the n-th root of x, so 27^(1/3) is the cube root of 27, which equals 3. More generally, x^(a/b) is the b-th root of x raised to the a-th power.
Why is any number to the power of 0 equal to 1?
By the rules of exponents, x^m ÷ x^m = x^(m−m) = x⁰, and any non-zero number divided by itself is 1. So x⁰ = 1 for every non-zero x. The expression 0⁰ is generally treated as undefined or, by convention, 1 in many contexts.
Can I raise a negative number to a fractional power?
Not within the real numbers in most cases. For example, (−4)^(1/2) would be the square root of a negative number, which is not real. The calculator flags these as undefined; even roots of negatives require complex numbers.