What are some tricks to compute exponents in your head?

Computing exponents is the same as calculating logarithms. log(2) ≈ 0.301 is the same as saying 10 ^ 0.301 ≈ 2 (base 10). There are a lot of tricks to calculate logarithms. Here are some examples: If log 2 = 0.301 then log 5 is 0.699. This is because log(5) is log(10/2) = log(10) - log(2) = 1 - log(2). read more

EASY EXPONENTS: There are a few easy exponents with which you should already be familiar. 1 to any power is always 1. Similarly, 10 to any power is simply 1 followed a number of zeroes equal to the power. 10 2 is 1 followed by 2 zeroes, or 100, 10 3 is 1 followed by 3 zeroes, or 1,000, and so son. Also, any number to the first power is always itself. read more