Exponents
Imagine that you are writing a paper for your science class
and need to write many verylarge numbers, such as
10,000,000,000,000. Your fingers would get pretty tired writing
all those zeros. However, there is a simpler way to express these
large powers of 10. An exponent is a small
number placed above and to the right of a base number to show how
many times the base number is multiplied by itself. For example,
100,000 is 10 multiplied by itself five times, or
10 × 10 × 10 × 10 × 10. Written in exponential form,
100,000 is  .
The exponent number tells you how many zeros are in your power
of 10.
PROCEDURE: To change a power of 10 into exponential form,
first count the number of zeros in your power of 10. This number
will be your exponent. Place the exponent above and to the right
of the base number of 10.
SAMPLE PROBLEM: Write 10,000,000,000,000 in exponential form.
Step 1: Count the zeros in your powerof
10.10,000,000,000,000 has 13 zeros.
Step 2: Place your exponent above andto the
right of your base number 10. 
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